Novak Djokovic’s startling five-word response to Wimbledon crowd for booing him ahead of final vs Carlos Alcaraz

If the trend remains true on Sunday as well, the Centre Court will be behind the young Carlos Alcaraz rather than favour the defending champion Novak Djokovic. Despite being a seven-time winner, aiming for Wimbledon and Grand Slam glory, crowd support has evaded Djokovic throughout his campaign in 2023 with the Serb getting booed a couple of times during his matches. It happened in the first two rounds and then again during the semi-final match against Jannik Sinner, all of which left his irritated before he sent out a startling message to the crowd ahead of the final against Alcaraz. (Wimbledon 2023 final Live Updates)

The 36-year-old was at his dominant best on Friday evening at the SW19 before being disrupted twice. One was owing the double violation call made by the umpire during the second set and the other was in the third set when the crowd broke into boos for the Serb when Sinner had the chance to close the set on Djokovic’s serve.

Djokovic was left frustrated and responded with sarcastic claps before calming his nerves to save two break points after which he made a gesture at the crowd of pretending to cry. However, in the post-match press conference, he played down the incident and rather responded in startling fashion. “It’s all love, love and acceptance.”

Djokovic vs Alcaraz for final

It was a match that world tennis waited for and they were handed the opportunity on Friday when Alcaraz beat Daniil Medvedev in the clash of the US Open winners on Centre Court. It will be the Spaniard’s second Grand Slam meeting with the Serb after Roland Garros last month when the 20-year-old had suffered from cramps in his four-set defeat.

Speaking on the blockbuster final, Djokovic said: “He’s so young, but he’s incredibly consistent now, also on grass. Which I don’t think many people expected him to play so well because his game is basically, yeah, built and constructed and developed for clay mostly or slower hard courts. But he’s been incredibly successful in adapting to the surfaces and demands and challenges of opponents on a given day.”

Despite Alcaraz’s improved show in grass, he will have a herculean task at hand against Djokovic, who has been unbeaten at Wimbledon since 2017, on Centre Court since 2013 and in Grand Slam since 2022 French Open.