‘Woke’ Australian Open rule change prompted X-rated outburst from Novak Djokovic
A new rule change at the Australian Open has divided opinion amongst the players already.
Usually at tennis tournaments, fans have to wait until the change of ends to move in and out of the stadiums.
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This can often be 10 minutes or more during particularly hard-fought games.
However, at the Australian Open fans can now make their way to and from their seats in the small time between games.
Not everyone is a fan.
Novak Djokovic shouted 'shut the f*** up' at some spectators who were being particularly noisy while moving around during his first round victory.
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He later admitted to not knowing about the rule change.
“I did not know about that new policy or new rule,” he said.
“Look, I mean, I understand the motive behind it is to enhance and improve the experience for fans, right? We do play for fans. We want fans to have a great, thrilling experience of being out on the court.
“It's hard, I must say. I understand that and I support it to some extent, but at the same time all my career, all my life I've been used to some kind of atmosphere. When that changes, it kind of messes up, distracts you a bit.
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“Today we lost quite a bit of time when they were letting people in to come to their seats, even though it was not a changeover. My opponent would wait for them to sit down. It dragged a lot.
“I don't know if it's really the best rule, but I do understand from a tournament and fan perspective it's probably better because they don't want to wait. They want to come out and enjoy every single point.
“I'm kind of divided between the two in a way.”
Australian Jordan Thompson was playing in front of a boisterous crowd and he was another to find out about the new rules while on court.
He said: “Are you kidding me? This is the wokest tournament ever.”
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