Novak Djokovic: Injured Line Judge Who Caused Disqualification Receives Threats

Novak Djokovic's disqualification at the 2020 U.S. Open had seemingly disgruntled a lot of fans of the world's No.1 ranked tennis player and perhaps fans of the sport itself.

This, after the female line judge who got hit with the errant ball that was hit by Djokovic from behind and caused his disqualification has been receiving threats online.

Yahoo reported that neither Novak Djokovic or the U.S. Open revealed the name of the female line judge.

Djokovic even stated in his apology that he is not naming the woman because he wanted to respect her privacy.

However, the woman has been identified as Laura Clark of Owensboro, Kentucky.

Her name was published in The Owensboro Times, a newspaper in her hometown, in a story that they had written about Novak Djokovic on Sunday, September 6, the same day that the incident happened.

Clark's Instagram account was also revealed by a tabloid in Serbia, Djokovic's homeland, according to the Daily Mail.

This caused Clark's Instagram account to be bombarded with personal abuse.

In an apology that Djokovic posted on his social media account, the Serb had said that he feels sad and empty following his disqualification from the 2020 U.S. Open, according to an article on the Latin Post.

The incident happened while Novak Djokovic was trailing Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta, 6-5, in the first set after the Spaniard had broken his serve.

That prompted Djokovic to hit the ball towards the back where the line judges were positioned.

Although unintentional, the ball unfortunately hit Clark in the throat. Clark had screamed out in pain, clutched her throat before falling to the ground in obvious distress.

A few minutes later, U.S. Open officials defaulted Novak Djokovic from the match.

Djokovic was gunning for his 18th Grand Slam title and had a big chance of clinching it with defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain opting not to play due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Switzerland's Roger Federer still recovering from a knee surgery.

Aside from being the heavy favorite, Djokovic also went into the U.S. Open undefeated as he had not lost any of his matches so far this year.

Novak Djokovic's disqualification paved the way for a new and young singles men's open champion in this year's U.S. Open, according to a report on the Forbes.

No. 3 Daniil Medvedev, No. 5 Zverev and No. 2 Dominic Thiem and the remaining players will have a chance to break Djokovic, Nadal and Federer's stranglehold of the majors as they have taken turns in winning the past 13 Grand Slam titles.

If Djokovic had not gotten disqualified and he had won against Busta, he would have faced Zverev in the semifinals.

Zverev said that the tournament has really started to become interesting now.

As for Novak Djokovic, he had said that he would work on his disappointment for getting disqualified.

The bad boy of tennis, John McEnroe, said that Djokovic will be remembered for what had happened on Sunday and that he will be seen as the bad guy for the rest of his tennis career.

McEnroe noted that it would be interesting to see how Novak Djokovic would handle it.

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