"It’s just disgusting": Martina Navratilova lambasts Australian Open crowd for booing Novak Djokovic after retiring from semifinal because of injury

Former world number one Martina Navratilova has lambasted the crowd at the Australian Open for their reaction after the retirement of Serbia’s Novak Djokovic. The 37-year-old, who is regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis in the singles category, was forced to retire from the semifinal of the first Grand Slam of the year because of a muscle tear against Germany’s Alexander Zverev.

Djokovic suffered the injury during the quarterfinal against Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz but somehow managed to turn it around and cement his place in the last four. As soon as it was announced that the Belgrade-born star would not be able to continue after the first set, a section of the crowd sitting in the arena started to boo the former world number one.

Their reaction was a surprising one, and it even forced the current world number two, Zverev, to ask the crowd not to boo a player of Djokovic’s stature who has lifted the Australian Open as many as 10 times. Zverev was not the only player who raised concerns about the behaviour of the crowd. Former world number one Navratilova also became another high-profile to lambast the audience sitting in the arena who called their action ‘disgusting’. “What I’m really upset about is the crowd booing Novak. “Seriously? Nobody wanted to finish that match more than Novak. Nobody. And then they boo. I mean seriously, it’s just disgusting,” she said.

Famous tennis coach Rennae Stubbs, in a post on social media platform X — previously known as Twitter — also criticised the crowd for their reaction. “I don’t care what you think of Novak Djokovic, love him or hate him. If you booed him off the court today, you’re a disgrace,” she wrote. “That man has literally left his heart and soul on that court. He’s our greatest champion Melbourne and he’s injured! Think about what you just did. Disgraceful!!”