Wimbledon Penalizes Djokovic for a Gesture Toward Alcaraz that Everyone Condemned
Carlos Alcaraz hoisted the Wimbledon trophy after almost five hours of hard work to bounce back from a shaky start due to nerves and dethrone Novak Djokovic, who hadn’t tasted defeat on the Centre Court of the All England Club for a decade, nor in his previous 34 matches at the tournament.
The chair umpire of the final, Irishman Fergus Murphy, implemented the appropriate ‘warning.’ It did not extend beyond a caution because the previous ‘warning’ he had issued to Djokovic was related to exceeding the twenty-five-second service time.
The gesture was displeasing to all as it violated the tournament’s mystique, one of the elements intertwined with tradition. That touch of arrogance says a lot.
Pending confirmation, as pointed out by British media, Novak Djokovic’s unsportsmanlike behavior will be penalized with a fine of $8,000, matching the tournament record held by young Russian Mirra Andreeva, who accumulated two racket throws, but without the violence of the Balkan’s gesture.
This penalty is a trifle for Djokovic, who earned one million three hundred thousand euros as a finalist. It will not affect his pocketbook, but these are the details that make him less likable and lose out in comparisons with Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. “I was frustrated; there had been a couple of very tough points. Alcaraz played incredibly to break my serve,” Djokovic explained after the match.
