(VIDEO) Djokovic and Swiatek among the players at US Open who reveal their "tennis ick"

Sunday, 27 August 2023 at 13:05

Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek were among the players who revealed their "tennis ick" in a funny promotional video for the US Open.

As the last Grand Slam of the year gets ready to begin tomorrow, Monday, August 28, some of the top-ranked tennis stars were asked about the aspects of the sport that they found the most annoying or off-putting in matches.

From grunting to taking a long time to serve, here's what the tennis stars had to say.

Djokovic says he dislikes 'too much noise'

23-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic was the first player in the video, and his response was noise-related.

"Erm... Grunting. Too much noise. I get annoyed by that," he said with a laugh.

He was followed by world No. 5 Ons Jabeur, who revealed it was players saying 'C'mon' that got on her nerves.

"I don't know, the saying 'come on' too much annoys me a lot," she said, before jokingly adding, "But don't tell them [other players], they will do it."

Third seed Daniil Medvedev was next to disclose his tennis ick, saying it was when players take a long time to serve.

"I generally am someone who gets ready fast for the points. So in general, sometimes I just get bored when people get ready for the serve too long, because I stay there in return. I'm like, okay, let's wait, let's wait, let's wait," he explained.

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However, the 27-year-old added that taking a while is normal for a lot of players.

"But it's normal. We have timings, and someone takes more time, someone takes less," he continued.

Swiatek says she's annoyed by players who rush to serve

Several other players agreed with Medvedev, including Frances Tiafoe, Marketa Vondrousova, and Taylor Fritz, with Jessica Pegula adding that she hates being told to wait before serving.

However, world No. 1 Swiatek said her tennis ick is when people rush to start the next game after a long rally.

"After a really long rally, they rush to start the next point after, like, 2 seconds and I have no time to go to grab my towel or anything," she said.

Meanwhile, top seed Carlos Alcaraz revealed that he found 'serve and volley' annoying, while Aryna Sabalenka said she disliked the drop shot.

"Drop shot probably," she said, "I just... I don't like it," she said while laughing.