Summary of complaint
We鈥檝e received complaints from people who felt our commentary favoured Novak Djokovic and/or condoned his behaviour after hitting the net post with his racket.
Our response
There was no intention to condone Djokovic鈥檚 behaviour when hitting the net post with his racket. Instead, while Andrew Castle highlighted that Djokovic鈥檚 anger and frustration was 鈥渦nderstandable鈥 at such a crucial point in the match, it was also made clear that this behaviour is wrong, and that Djokovic rightly received a conduct violation for it. Andrew also highlighted that such behaviour can be dangerous, looking back at a similar instance with Djokovic, stating; 鈥淒isqualified at the US Open in 2020 after unintentionally hitting a line judge. That was a dangerous moment for a lot of reasons鈥. We recognise how these comments came across to some however, and we鈥檝e shared this with the programme team.
Throughout the final, our team shared their analysis and praise for both players. They praised Alcaraz for such performances at such a young age, for the variety in his game, and Andrew did include particular praise of Alcaraz鈥檚 game too.