Novak Djokovic has been fined $8,000 after smashing his racquet during the Wimbledon men’s singles final.
The 36-year-old smashed his racquet against the net post during his match against Carlos Alcaraz. The Serb ultimately lost to the 20-year-old top ranked player 1-6 7-6 (6) 6-1 3-6 6-4 after four hours and 42 minutes.
Djokovic said that he wasn’t proud of the incident and accepted the fine. “There’s not much to talk about that. Second one was frustration. I had break points in the second game. Yeah, just a tough, tough couple of points. He played amazingly to break my serve, which was enough to win the fifth.
“The first one was a time violation, so yeah. Not a great moment again, but you just kind of have to accept it,” he said.
Djokovic said Alcaraz played well and credited how he handled pressure.
“As I said on the court, I’ve won some epic finals that I was very close to losing,” he said.
“Maybe this is kind of a fair-and-square deal I guess to lose a match like this for me here. Even though it hurts, it’s never easy to lose a close match.
Alcaraz frustrates Novak at the Wimbledon final on Sunday.
“Credit to Carlos. Amazing poise in the important moments. For someone of his age to handle the nerves like this, be playing attacking tennis, and to close out the match the way he did,” Djokovic said.