{"id":360807,"date":"2024-01-18T03:20:24","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T04:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=360807"},"modified":"2024-01-18T08:05:17","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T08:05:17","slug":"silence-crowd-clash-exposes-dangerous-novak-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=360807","title":{"rendered":"'Silence': Crowd clash exposes dangerous Novak truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniela Hantuchova joked that parochial tennis fans should cheer for Novak Djokovic against Alex de Minaur should the pair collide at the Australian Open.<\/a><\/p>\n

The world No.1 downed another Aussie, Alexei Popyrin,\ufeff on Wednesday in a second round match that saw a fiery Djokovic directly challenge a heckler.<\/a><\/p>\n

The legendary Serbian cried\ufeff "come here and say it to my face" to a fan seated behind him at Rod Laver Arena during the four set win.<\/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><\/p>\n

\"Why<\/p>\n

"I don't think it's a bad thing for Novak," former world No.5 Hantuchova said on Stan Sport's Grand Slam Daily<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"He likes to be tested. He likes to be challenged and not only by his opponents but obviously by the crowd as well… just like always, he needed something to fight against and he found someone in the crowd to do so.<\/p>\n

"To challenge someone like that, face to face, kind of challenging (for the fan to respond) because the guy doesn't have a credential or whatever. So, yeah, it's Novak's personality."<\/p>\n

LIVE:<\/strong> Australian Open 2024 day five<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Tributes as Aussie racing great dies aged 48<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Djoker reveals why 'tough guy' got under his skin<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Djokovic<\/p>\n

Djokovic will play Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry\ufeff in the third round on Saturday while de Minaur will take on Italy's Flavio Cobolli on the same day.<\/p>\n

Should Djokovic and de Minaur meet later in the tournament, Hantuchova said Australians should zip it.<\/p>\n

"Oh no, no, no, quiet, silence," she quipped.<\/p>\n

\u200bFor all the Australian Open headlines, talking points and highlights, watch Grand Slam Daily.<\/strong><\/em> Streaming live every day on Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Djokovic\u2019s<\/p>\n

"Don't try to support Alex at all. Actually, if you want Alex to win, support Novak. Empty stadium\ufeff… he just loves it when the crowd is against him.<\/p>\n

"I think that's when he plays his best tennis. We saw that in Torino against Jannik Sinner (in the ATP Finals last year), home crowd favourite, big time.<\/p>\n

"It felt like the louder it was, the better Novak was playing and he just likes to have those kind of circumstances and conditions to play. And that's why he's one of the greatest, if not the greatest we've ever had in the game. Because of that fighting spirit he brings on the court against his opponent and sometimes against the crowd as well."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniela Hantuchova joked that parochial tennis fans should cheer for Novak Djokovic against Alex de Minaur should the pair collide at the Australian Open. The […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":360809,"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\/360807"}],"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=360807"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360813,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360807\/revisions\/360813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/360809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}