{"id":360497,"date":"2024-01-17T01:29:25","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T02:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=360497"},"modified":"2024-01-17T04:02:17","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T04:02:17","slug":"misunderstood-star-on-collision-course-with-djokovic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=360497","title":{"rendered":"'Misunderstood' star on collision course with Djokovic"},"content":{"rendered":"

American tennis great Jim Courier<\/a> believes young star Ben Shelton is "misunderstood"\ufeff and says critics will learn to love him eventually.<\/p>\n

Shelton was given a clip by 24-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic<\/a> over the weekend as the pair are poised to potentially collide at the Australian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They met on-court at last year's US Open, where Djokovic won in straight sets and then mocked his young rival by copying his trademark celebration<\/a>, where Shelton answers an imaginary phone and then slams it down.<\/p>\n

LIVE UPDATES:<\/strong> Australian Open 2024 LIVE Results Day 4<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Alexander Zverev clashes with journos<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Dramatic twist in sad Ronald Volkman saga<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

While it was initially brushed off as being light-hearted, Djokovic reignited the simmering feud last week by revealing his actual thoughts.<\/p>\n

"This is my reaction to a provocation that came from the other side, it was a reaction against him," Djokovic told L'Equipe.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

"He did not behave properly, with respect, on court, and before the match.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"I'm never going to make fun of someone if they don't do something first. Every time I lose I always give my opponent a hug, I congratulate him, I respect him and his team.<\/p>\n

"If anyone places himself in the unsportsmanlike zone, I react."<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 Australian Open live and exclusive on Nine,<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and ad-free on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Shelton was quizzed about Djokovic's comments earlier this week in Melbourne, but chose not to return fire.<\/p>\n

While many American athletes portray a typical confidence – or arrogance – \ufeffassociated with the nation, Shelton does seem to take it to a new level.<\/p>\n

Courier, though, says \ufeffthe 21-year-old is simply happy-go-lucky.<\/p>\n

"I would go with misunderstood," Courier told Wide World of Sports' The Morning Serve<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

"I think that Ben is a confident young man and has a lot of swagger on the court. Some people might not take to that, but a lot of people do.<\/p>\n

"I think if you get to know him personally, I think you'll fall in love with him."<\/p>\n

Shelton and Djokovic both play Aussies – Chris O'Connell and Alexei Popyrin respectively – in round two, but if they keep winning will run into one another in round four at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n

\"Djokovic<\/p>\n

Courier thinks Shelton will be buzzing for a rematch against the world No.1.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I think he'd relish the opportunity to play Novak – these young guys want to test themselves against the best," he said.<\/p>\n

"Shelton obviously took on Novak at the US Open and it obviously went Novak's way pretty conclusively.<\/p>\n

"That would be a good test for him to get back out there and see if his game has improved since then.<\/p>\n

"It would obviously be a big hype-fest too … if we're talking about it, it's probably a good thing."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American tennis great Jim Courier believes young star Ben Shelton is "misunderstood"\ufeff and says critics will learn to love him eventually. Shelton was given a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":360499,"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\/360497"}],"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=360497"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360501,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360497\/revisions\/360501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/360499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}