{"id":249164,"date":"2022-11-06T23:24:25","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T00:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=249164"},"modified":"2022-11-07T04:57:52","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T04:57:52","slug":"djokovics-team-sprung-in-suspicious-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=249164","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic's team sprung in 'suspicious' video"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeff tennis fan has captured curious footage of Novak Djokovic<\/a>'s team apparently attempting to conceal a substance it was preparing courtside for the 21-time grand slam champion at the Paris Masters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The video was taken during Djokovic's third-set tiebreak win over Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/a> in the semi finals on Sunday. He was later defeated by unseeded Danish teenager Holger Rune<\/a> 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the final.<\/p>\n

The clip appears to show the Serbian's entourage mixing a mysterious concoction.<\/p>\n

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\"Footage<\/p>\n

As members of the team realise they are being \ufeffwatched, they change their seating positions to shield the contents of a yellow water bottle from view.<\/p>\n

The water bottle \ufeffis then handed over the sideline to a ball kid who runs it to Djokovic as he sits on his players' bench next to the umpire's chair.<\/p>\n

In response to the video, leading tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg called for greater transparency around the substances being taken by players, describing the body language of Djokovic's team as "bizarre".<\/p>\n

"I've always thought there should be more transparency about the substances players take, particularly during matches, but I've also rarely thought anything was likely amiss," he said in a tweet.<\/p>\n

"But golly, the body language in this video is bizarre. What does the Djokovic team think needs hiding?"<\/p>\n

"I think rivals (and the public and the officials governing the sport) should get to know [the substance]. I don't think there should be secret substances being ingested during competition.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenRothenberg\/status\/1589233451827597313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"I'm accusing no one of anything here, but what an incredibly suspicious way to start acting when you suddenly notice that you're being filmed. [I] Hope Djokovic and\/or his team get asked about this today in Paris, and that they don't just accept his previous "magic potions" answer."<\/p>\n

Djokovic was previously asked about unknown substances he appeared to inhale at Wimbledon<\/a> earlier this year. The 35-year-old responded to questions by saying: "It's a magic potion, that's all I can say".<\/p>\n

"You'll find out soon," he added, "but I can't speak about it now."<\/p>\n

Rothenberg did not imply Djokovic had engaged in anything banned but argued it wasn't a good look for his team to act in such a suspicious way.<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

"It's not the crouching, it's directing the other guy to block the camera by turning his back," he wrote.<\/p>\n

"The optics of that are just strange and invite more questions."<\/p>\n

Rothenberg also explained that members of a player's box are not thoroughly checked before entering a venue ahead of a match.<\/p>\n

"There is no regulation or inspection of this sort of thing that I'm aware of," he said.<\/p>\n

Djokovic was not asked about the situation following his loss to Rune.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeff tennis fan has captured curious footage of Novak Djokovic's team apparently attempting to conceal a substance it was preparing courtside for the 21-time grand […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=249164"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249166,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249164\/revisions\/249166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=249164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=249164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=249164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}