{"id":26843,"date":"2021-01-25T08:12:26","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T09:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=26843"},"modified":"2021-01-25T13:09:10","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T13:09:10","slug":"tennis-legend-urges-fans-to-ease-up-on-djoker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=26843","title":{"rendered":"Tennis legend urges fans to ease up on Djoker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic's controversial quarantine wish-list<\/a> has drawn much more hype than his title defence in the lead-up to this year's Australian Open.<\/p>\n

However, the reigning Australian Open men's champion has received an ally in former world No.1 Jim Courier, who called on the Australian public to quit their heckling of the superstar Serbian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Djokovic copped a barrage of backlash when he issued Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley a list of six suggestions for the 72 Australian Open contestants serving a hard 14-day hotel lockdown in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

But Courier said Djokovic's intentions had been misinterpreted and encouraged the public to ease up on the world No.1.<\/p>\n

"Novak has gone out of his way to stand up for other players in Australia," Courier told Nine News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"He was being a leader and it just came off wrong in the public and I hope the Australian public will give him another chance to at least explain himself."<\/p>\n

\"Djokovic<\/p>\n

However, Courier also said Djokovic's love of the spotlight often brought the scoffs upon himself.<\/p>\n

"He is sensitive to public opinion," Courier said.<\/p>\n

"He spends energy trying to court public opinion and based on what he's done on the court he should be a huge fan favourite; he's just come up at a time that a lot of the fan base have decided they're a Roger (Federer) fan or a Rafa (Nadal) fan."<\/p>\n

Mercurial Greek-Australian Nick Kyrgios has had almost 12 months out of the game, having not played a match since he retired after one set in the 2020 Mexican Open.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The world No.47 won the 2019 Mexican Open but last year retired with a wrist injury after losing the first set of his match with Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-3.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios decided to have a break from playing to rejuvenate and hit the Australian Open in top condition.<\/p>\n

Courier said the 25-year-old's time away from the game may have made him an ever greater danger to his rivals.<\/p>\n

"Maybe this could be something that triggers something really positive for him," Courier said.<\/p>\n

"You don't want to play him if you're in the player field because he's so unpredictable and powerful and he's going to have the crowd behind him."<\/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<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic's controversial quarantine wish-list has drawn much more hype than his title defence in the lead-up to this year's Australian Open. However, the reigning […]<\/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\/26843"}],"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=26843"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26845,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26843\/revisions\/26845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}