Andy Roddick defends Novak Djokovic's emotional celebration after winning gold

Former world number one Andy Roddick believes that anyone criticising Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic for an emotional celebration after winning the gold medal at the Olympics should stop watching ‘sports forever’. The 37-year-old is often regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis in the Open era in the singles category, having won as many as 24 Grand Slam titles in his illustrious career.

Djokovic recently participated in the Paris Olympics, where he finally completed his trophy cabinet after winning the gold medal for his country. He defeated Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the final in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 7-6. After the win, Djokovic was emotional as he burst in tears on the court and was shaken after winning something that was missing from his trophy cabinet.

That celebration was widely admired by tennis fans all over the world, especially on social media, but some found it unreal and tried to downplay the Serb’s achievement. Roddick, who is also a former world number one and won one Grand Slam in his career, was recently quoted in a report where he stated that anyone who was not touched by seeing Djokovic emotional after winning the gold medal for his country should ‘retire’ from watching sports. He further called such people ‘losers’ for not understanding what success meant for the Belgrade-born star.

"I haven't seen that emotional set from Novak in a very long time,” he said. “Winning your seventh Wimbledon, it didn't elicit the reaction... his body was shaking. If you can't appreciate that, you should just retire from watching sports forever. I don't care about like, I care about respect. If you're a fan that is on Twitter ripping on Novak, then you don't deserve to watch tennis. It's some loser. You can like someone more, someone else can also be great.”