Novak Djokovic was fired up at the Melbourne Park crowd late in his 6-3, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 second-round win over Aussie Alexei Popyrin.
You could cut the tension with a knife on Rod Laver Arena as Djokovic led two sets to one after surviving four set points and winning a tie-breaker to get ahead of the Aussie.
Djokovic was stretching out his wrist — which appeared to be bothering him during the United Cup earlier this month — at 2-all, before he began jawing with a member of the crowd, who he said “crossed the line” with comments.
“Come down here and say that to my face, come and say it my face, come on, come on,” Djokovic said while gesturing to the patron.
The commentators said the fan had not been kicked out of the stadium.
Speaking in the press conference, Djokovic opened up on the incident, without revealing what was said.
“You don’t want to know,” Djokovic said. “There was a lot of things that were being told to me on the court, particularly from that corner, and the same side the other corner. I was tolerating it for most of the match.
“At one point I had enough, and I asked him whether he wants to come down and tell it to my face. When you confront somebody, unfortunately for him, he didn’t have the courage to come down. That’s what I was asking him.
“If you have courage, if you’re such a tough man, tough guy, come down and tell it to my face, and let’s have a discussion about it. He was apologizing from far away. That’s all it is.”
Djokovic battled his wrist injury and the crowd, while still seemingly struggling with a cold.
But the fan interaction was just what Djokovic needed as he rattled off the next three games to go ahead 5-2, including breaking Popyrin at love.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Jim Courier said on Australia’s Channel 9 that at times the Serbian superstar just needed the battle to switch himself on.
“It is just uncanny how the late switch flicks on when someone or something in the stands irritates this man,” Courier said. “He just goes into superhuman mode.
“When he gets mad he doesn’t get even, he pulls away. And Popyrin is struggling to win points since Novak confronted that fan.”
Djokovic conceded it may have been what he needed, admitting he was “flat emotionally.”
“Maybe that was needed for me to be shaken up a bit and start to find the kind of intensity on the court that I needed to have all match,” the World No. 1 said.
Djokovic paid tribute to the young Aussie post-match, calling the third set, where the Serb saved four set points before eventually winning in a tie-break, as the turning point.
“He had quite an easy forehand and he missed it. I didn’t do anything special. I was lucky,” Djokovic said.
“He was the better player for a set and a half. The momentum shifted in the tie-break. I put one more ball into the court than he did. Credit to him for tactically coming out with the right game plan and serving big. He deserves a round of applause for his performance tonight.”
It was a huge day of action at the Open, with the likes of 17th seed Frances Tiafoe, 22nd seed Francisco Cerundolo and 25th seed Lorenzo Musetti bowing out in the men’s draw, while it was a bloodbath in the women’s.
The 25th seed, Elise Mertens, 16th seed Caroline Garcia, 32nd seed Leylah Fernandez, sixth seed Ons Jabeur and eighth seed Maria Sakkari all bowed out for the Open.