NOVAK DJOKOVIC TURNS ON 'DISRESPECTFUL' FANS IN EXPLOSIVE FRENCH OPEN PRESS CONFERENCE
Novak Djokovic branded the French crowd "disrespectful" after he was booed during his win over Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The Wimbledon champion needed three hours and 26 minutes to see off the No 29 seed 7-6 7-6 6-2 - his longest straight sets win in a Grand Slam match
But the Serbian was jeered and booed when he took a medical timeout at the end of the second set to receive a massage on his left thigh. He reacted by sarcastically giving a thumbs up and clapping in response.
Djokovic, who is never far from controversy, said: "I think the majority of the people come to enjoy tennis or support one or the other player. But there are people that love to boo every single thing you do.
"That's something that I find disrespectful and I frankly don't understand that. But it's their right. They paid the ticket. They can do whatever they want. Actually 99% of the time I will stay quiet. Sometimes I will oppose that, because I feel when somebody is disrespectful, he or she deserves to have an answer to that."
Asked about his injury, the 22-time Grand Slam winner said: "We don't have much time to start to name the many injuries I have - the list is quite long. I still kept on playing." And Djokovic admitted that he was lucky to get through in straight sets.
"Well, it was extremely tough for various reasons. First, you know, three hours for two sets, I don't remember when I played last time three hours, two sets. Maybe against Nadal in one of our matches," he said.
"He was making me work for every point. Yeah, I just have to be, in the end of the day when I draw a line, very content to win this match in three sets. Maybe it was, I would say, more deservable and probably more fair, I guess, if you see the kind of a match it was today that this match went at least in four sets, because he was serving for it in the first.
"But in the end of the day, it was a straight-set win. I'm really glad that I managed to kind of gear up in the third, and now basically focuses on recovery and trying to get ready for the next one."