‘Provoked’ – Novak Djokovic blasts John McEnroe as their feud escalates after Australian Open
Novak Djokovic has suggested that John McEnroe 'provoked' him into sharing an image of his hamstring injury at the Australian Open.
Djokovic suffered a muscle tear during his quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz last month and was in visible discomfort on the court.
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He took a medical timeout but tennis legend McEnroe appeared to hint that the Serbian was faking his injury.
"This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this routine. Don’t be fooled," he said during commentary.
Djokovic was then forced to retire from the tournament in the semi-final clash against Alexander Zverev with the same issue.
He posted an image of his MRI scan on social media, saying: "Thought I’d leave this here for all the sports injury "experts" out there."
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Speaking ahead of the Qatar Open via Tennis 365, the 24-time Grand Slam winner .
"Well, I was provoked by the fact that several times in a row, as long as I was in Australia, I was injured on the 21st and the 23rd," he said.
"I can’t say everyone, but I felt a fairly large group of people thought that it was not true and that my injuries were actually some kind of provocation on my part or to play strategic mental games with my opponents.
"And I would not have reacted if some legends of our sport had not reacted.
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"I think that when some things remain on social media, that’s fine, but when it escalates to the point where people have a dilemma and simply question my integrity and the credibility of what I said.
"Especially when it comes from some people who are really legends of the sport and who have a multi-million audience that listens to them when they broadcast the matches, then I felt the need to react, to show the recording from the MRI."
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Djokovic was jeered by fans after retiring against Zverev, who called for them to show respect towards his opponent.
McEnroe also jumped to the Serb's defence despite his controversial words beforehand, calling the crowd's response 'depressing'.
"They can't possibly be booing him. Please! He's won this ten times, for God's sakes. Unreal."
McEnroe added: "He's won this ten times. I mean, come on. I mean, clearly something was up. The guy is a battler.
"I mean, him and Rafa [Nadal] have dug deeper than any two players I have seen.
"So to do that [boo] because he decided that he couldn't go on after what he's done here I thought was absolutely ludicrous, honestly.
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"That was almost as depressing as seeing the end of the match."
Djokovic is set to play doubles with Fernando Verdasco at the Qatar Open today against Alexander Bublik and Karen Khachanov.
He is then due for a singles match clash with Matteo Berrettini on Tuesday.
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