JOHN McENROE has warned the French Open fans that booing Novak Djokovic will only spur him on when he plays crowd favourite Rafael Nadal on Tuesday night.
World number one and defending champion Djokovic was jeered when he walked on to court before his fourth-round match against Diego Schwartzman.
His name was also booed when mentioned during 13-time champion Nadal’s on-court interview following his five-set victory over Felix Augur-Aliassime, which set up the box-office quarter-final and a 59th meeting of the heavyweights of the sport.
McEnroe, who was no stranger to getting on the wrong side of the crowd during his playing days, believes Djokovic is the best ever at feeding off the negative energy towards him.
“He does it better than anyone I’ve ever seen,” said Eurosport pundit McEnroe.
“I didn’t do it as well. I felt like it affected me more than it helped me. I think there were times where it fuelled me, but he has done it consistently. He’s a remarkable player and person.”
McEnroe’s brattish behaviour on his way to seven grand slam titles in the 1980s usually earned him the ire of the crowd but he is at a loss to explain why Djokovic, who has never received the same levels of adoration heaped upon Nadal and Roger Federer, is being heckled so much this year.
“He’s been wanting to be respected at that same level, and that sort of fuels him but I think it’s unfair, personally,” added the American. “It’s just something that I can’t explain. I don’t know what it is, honestly.
“He deserves to be – and he is – respected. It’s just that I’m sure it’s frustrating. I think at the end of the day they will like him more after he stopped playing which sort of ended up being the case with myself, I guess.
“But at the time, it’s frustrating. Some of it can be at times your own fault, but I think quite a bit of it isn’t. It’s just that these other guys are so amazing.
Eurosport expert John McEnroe won seven grand slam titles (Steve Paston/PA)
“The way Rafa and Roger handle themselves, it’s hard to get to that level. Plus they were succeeding before him, so he’s been catching up the whole time.
“But he actually shows a lot of emotion, he’s fired up. People should love that and the French, they love that. I can’t explain it.”
Djokovic landed the first blow in the hotly-anticipated meeting on Monday after Roland Garros chiefs predictably chose it as the night match, whereas Nadal wanted to play in the day.
:: Watch every match from Roland-Garros live and exclusive on discovery+ and Eurosport::
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here