Exclusive: Novak Djokovic on Australian Open heckler: ‘I invited a guy to come and tell it to my face’

Djokovic, up two sets to one, was about to serve at 2-2 in the fourth when he suddenly began walking over towards the back of the court at his end.

“Come here and say it to my face,” he appeared to say as the heckler – out of picture – engaged with him.

“What’s going on here?” Chris Bradnam said on Eurosport commentary.

“Some jerk in the crowd,” Nick Kyrgios, also on commentary, added.

“That wouldn’t say something to Novak’s face if they were walking through a hallway together.”

Speaking to Eurosport’s Barbara Schett afterwards, Djokovic opened up on the incident and why he decided to confront the heckler.

“I was feeling a lot of mixed emotions on the court,” the 24-time major winner began.

“Not a great atmosphere to play in for me, to be honest, but again, you have to find a way to win, and I guess, accept the circumstances, the conditions you’re playing in.

“People basically making noise between the first and second serves the entire match. It is what it is: it’s a Grand Slam, it’s a fight.

“Of course, it annoys you, but you have to accept it and go with it. What really frustrates me is when somebody is heckling, so I confront[ed] the hecklers as I did.

“I think [Nick] loved that. Kygs, did you like that exchange? I invited a guy to come and tell it to my face, whatever he was saying. He was saying a lot of nice things.

“He was apologising from far away, and all of a sudden there was an absence of courage, when he needed to face me.”

Kyrgios, jumping in, said: “When he was heckling you, Novak, I told everyone worldwide, ‘Look, if you want me to jump into the crowd and sort him out, I’ll do it for you, bro, I’ve got your back, 100 per cent.’”

To which Djokovic responded: “I’ll keep that in my mind, thanks Kygs.”

Djokovic, who came through a tough battle with home hope Popyrin in four sets, was also seen flexing his wrist during the encounter, an ailment which – together with his admission of “feeling under the weather” after his first-round win over Dino Prizmic – seems to be causing the Serbian some difficulty in reaching his best form.

“I don’t want to get into the details of how I feel,” he said to Schett.

“Definitely not playing or feeling my best. I’ve been in this kind of situation before, many times, and hopefully I’ll build as the tournament progresses.

“I know what I need to do, and the good thing about a Slam is that you always have an extra day of rest between matches. Hopefully things will go in a positive direction from here.”

Djokovic will face Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the third round.

The 30th seed downed Andy Murray in the first round, before beating Gael Monfils to set up his clash with the Serbian.