Watch, Novak Djokovic shows his fury and breaks his racquet in dramatic ATP Cup loss

Novak Djokovic’s temper once again got the better of him as he lost in an ATP Cup match for the first time with defending champions Serbia out.


Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic lost an ATP Cup match for the first time in his career as defending champions Serbia were knocked out of the tournament by Germany. (Image credit: Twitter)

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Written By

Edited By

Siddharth Vishwanathan

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DNA webdesk

Updated: Feb 6, 2021, 08:28 AM IST

Novak Djokovic’s anger-management issues have been coming out in the open in the last couple of months. During the 2020 US Open, Novak Djokovic was disqualified after he hit a line official by hitting the tennis ball in her direction which caused an injury. His anger once again boiled over in the ATP Cup match as defending champions Serbia bowed out of the tournament with a dramatic loss to Germany. The incident took place in the doubles encounter which was crucial for Serbia’s chances of survival. Novak Djokovic had dug deep to beat Alexander Zverev in the singles match in a tough match.

In the doubles encounter, Novak Djokovic teamed up with Nikola Cacic but the Serbians found themselves a set down after losing the first set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-4) against Alexander Zverev and Jan-Lennard Struff. They were up 0-40 but a string of unforced errors saw Novak Djokovic and his compatriot lose the opportunity to take the lead. The current World No.1 was furious and he smashed his racquet violently on the team’s bench.

Out in the super tie-breaker

After losing the first set, Novak Djokovic’s Serbia won the second set but in the dramatic final set that went into the super tie-breaker, Novak Djokovic served a double fault and Germany managed to win six consecutive points to win the tie-breaker 10-7. This was the first time Novak Djokovic had lost a match in the ATP Cup tournament, having won 11 straight games.

Germany will now take on Russia while Spain will take on Italy. Italy already made it through to the semi-finals after topping Group C with wins over Austria and France. Russia is also into the last four after accounting for Japan and Argentina in Group D. Spain clinched Group B honours after Pablo Carreno Busta, deputising for injured world No.2 Rafael Nadal, defeated Michail Pervolarakis 6-3 6-4.

The ATP Cup is an international outdoor hard court men's tennis tournament between competing nations, which premiered in January 2020. The tournament is played across three Australian cities over ten days in the lead up to the Australian Open and features teams from 24 countries. In the first edition of the tournament, Serbia defeated Spain 2-1 in the best of three finals. The Australian Open will be played on Monday, February 8.