Struggles of Novak Djokovic with fan favoritism in the spotlight with Federer and Nadal theory offered by John Lloyd

In a differing theory offered up by John Lloyd, Novak Djokovic's issues with the Wimbledon crowd which have been highlighted amid the Holger Rune incident are historical with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal being the reason.

Perennially popular Federer and Nadal are fans' favourites in comparison to Djokovic who has proved a bit of a divisive figure to tennis fans. Even more so after this incident which saw him chime that he knew the fans were booing and not chanting Ruuuune ending the interview by saying have a goooood night. He also stormed out of an interview with the BBC over constant questioning over the incident and Lloyd gave his theory on the coverage.

“I think deep down he gets a bit annoyed at some of his rivals, in particular Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and they were so popular on court,” Lloyd said during BBC's coverage.

"Novak, sometimes, is just not as popular as those two. Well who would be? And I think sometimes he gets a little bit annoyed at it, the crowd gets on him, thinks it's a bit personal, it isn't."

This kind of chimes in with Djokovic's view point on his fellow members of the Big Three that he was unwelcome initially and isn't friends at the moment with either of his former rivals.

"I know certainly Federer didn't like the way I was behaving at the beginning," Djokovic said on Federer at the Australian Open. "I think it didn't sit with him well. I don't know about the others.

"I guess I wasn't the favourite type of guy to some of the top guys because I was not afraid to say that I want to be the best player in the world. I was confident and I felt like I have the game to back it up."

While he said the following about Nadal on French TV also. "Nadal is a special player in my career. "We are not friends, but we have a lot of respect for each other. I hope that after our careers we can have a drink on the beach and talk about life."