Nick Kygiros trolls Novak Djokovic over US Open 2020 disqualification: How many years would I be banned for?

Mercurial Australian tennis star, Nick Kyrgios took a dig at authorities after Novak Djokovic was defaulted from his US Open 2020 4th-round match, hinting he would have faced a harsher punishment had he been the one ‘accidentally hitting the ball kid in the throat’.

In a stunning turn of events, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic on Sunday was disqualified from US Open 2020 after he accidentally hit a lineswoman with the ball during his match at the Arthur Ashe Stadium against Pablo Carreno-Busta. Djokovic immediately apologised to the lineswoman and had a lengthy discussion with the officials on court before he was defaulted.

Djokovic’s bid for an 18th Grand Slam, thereby, came to a bizarre end as he left the Flushing Meadows right after the default, without speaking to reporters. Djokovic took to Instagram to apologise for the incident, hours after his act created a stir in the tennis community.

The US Open announced that Djokovic would lose ranking points earned at the tournament, which was being held in front of empty stands. It also said the Serb would be fined the prize money won at the tournament ‘in addition to any or all fines levied with respect to the offending incident’.

Taking to social media, NIck Kyrgios came up with a poll, asking his followers to choose between intensity of punishment had he done something similar. Kyrgios is one of the volatile characters in the tennis fraternity and the Australian has faced flak in the past for his on-court conduct.

“Swap me for jokers incident. ‘Accidentally hitting the ball kid in the throat’ how many years would I be banned for?,” Kyrgios wrote while giving ‘5’, ’10’, ’20’ as options for the poll.

Swap me for jokers incident. ‘Accidentally hitting the ball kid in the throat’ how many years would I be banned for?

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) September 6, 2020

‘Inadvertent but stupid’

Meanwhile, Alexander Zverev, who is now among the favourites to win the US Open, Djokovic would be upset over the ‘very unfortunate’ incident.

“It’s very unfortunate that he hit the line judge, and especially where it hit her,” Zverev told reporters. “Yeah, there is a rule in place for it. I think the supervisors and all of them are just doing their job.

“Very unlucky for Novak. I think he’s going to be a little bit upset about it. If he would have hit it anywhere else, if it would have landed anywhere else, we are talking about a few inches, he would have been fine,” Zverev said.

Tennis great Martina Navratilova took to social media to share her views on Djokovic’s ouster from the US Open.

“Unbelievable what just happened on the court,” she wrote on Twitter. “Novak Djokovic defaulted for inadvertently but stupidly hitting a lineswoman in the throat with a ball and the officials had no choice but to default.
“Wow… #sad Glad the woman is ok- we must do better than that.”