Andy Murray has been accused of taking another swipe at Novak Djokovic following the tennis great’s heated exchange with British fans at the Davis Cup Finals in Spain.
World No 1 Djokovic accused fans of “trying to annoy him” midway through his singles match against Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie on Thursday before things escalated after Serbia wrapped up the 2-0 quarter-final victory.
With fans banging their drums and singing during the post-match on-court interview, the 24-time Grand Slam winner took aim at them as he told them “Learn how to show respect to players” before shouting “shut up”.
Later on Djokovic said: “Disrespect, but again, that’s something I’m kind of have to be prepared for. You know, in the Davis Cup, it’s normal that sometimes fans step over the line, but, you know, in the heat of the moment, you react too, and you, in a way, how can I say, show that you don’t allow this kind of behaviour.”
Three-time Grand Slam winner Murray took to social media platform X to thank the British fans for their support at the Martin Carpena Arena in Malaga and insisted that the Davis Cup without fans would not work.
“Tough one for the guys in Malaga last night @DavisCup 😞 Huge thanks to all the fans who made the big effort to travel out there and create a brilliant atmosphere for the players👏 the Davis cup without you = 👎” he wrote.
And the Djokovic fans were quick to pounce on Murray’s post as they lashed out at him for not condemning the “respectful” fans.
“I hope you also condemn the minority of the GB fans that were trying to disrupt Djokovic post match interview? I’ve had some GB fans contact me today to say how disappointed they were with those fans and that they didn’t represent the majority of the fans who were respectful,” a fan replied.
Murray’s latest apparent dig comes only a few weeks after he supposedly fired another jab at Djokovic on Instagram.
A video of Djokovic hitting Roger Federer directly with a shot at the 2014 Shanghai Masters did the rounds on the social media site and Murray replied: “Totally legitimate play. Great shot. However, when Rafa clocked him in Canada and Norrie in Rome he reacted like ‘how dare you?’”
The former world No 1’s comment came on the back of Djokovic accusing Norrie of “not playing fair” during the Italian Open this year after the British player smashed a ball into the tennis great.
“Those are the things that we players know in the locker room it’s not fair play, it’s not how we treat each other,” Djokovic said.
Yet Murray pointed out that Djokovic had done the same earlier in his career.