‘Fired up’ Novak Djokovic hailed by Tim Henman and Mats Wilander after ‘brutal’ French Open win

A “fired up” Novak Djokovic was hailed by Tim Henman and Mats Wilander following the Serbian’s “brutal” French Open win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Djokovic was pushed all the way by the Spaniard in a pulsating first two sets that both went to tie-breaks, and that saw the match duration at nearly three hours.

Wilander and Henman felt that the booing the French crowd handed out to Djokovic when he took a medical timeout at the end of the second set contributed to the way the encounter unravelled.

Three-time Roland-Garros champion Wilander, speaking on Eurosport’s The Cube, said: “If the people that are here want to see a close match or they boo, it’s only because they want to see more tennis, they’re doing [Novak] a favour, because he gets more fired up when they’re against him and supporting the other guy.

“It’s understandable they want Davidovich Fokina to win a set because they want to see Novak play more.

“I think that if they really want Novak to not play well and make it close, they shouldn’t boo him because that helps him, because he gets angrier.

“He’ll find a reason to get upset or angry in a positive way whatever it is, and [the crowd] is just making it easier for him because it’s so easy to do it against the crowd.”

Henman concurred, judging the 22-time major champion to have acted within the rules for his timeout and that the incident had motivated him.

“Fokina had left the court at this stage so Djokovic is perfectly entitled to have the trainer on,” Henman said.

“He revels in the adversity and the confrontation, when the crowd are on his case, booing and whistling. It motivates him. He enjoys that added atmosphere. It’s experience.

“You think, on the one hand, is he fighting with the crowd, is there all this tension? But on the other, you think that he’s used it to get fired up, but now he’s got to ensure that they’re on his side when he leaves.

“He’s touching his heart and blowing kisses, and they’re giving him a standing ovation. I think he played it perfectly.

“Davidovich Fokina deserves a lot of credit. He served for the first set and had a lot of those opportunities.

“Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t able to take them, but you saw what it meant for Djokovic to win the second set with a huge celebration. He was really fired up. It was a brutal and physical match.”

“Why do they boo?” McEnroe said.

“Everyone does it [take a medical time-out]. It’s totally legal, you’re allowed to work and rub his legs! Where’s Davidoch Fokina? He’s off to the bathroom.

“I totally get his [Djokovic’s] reaction. Are you kidding me? Are you going to boo for this? The other guy’s not even on the court!

“Change the rules if you don’t want to let a guy get worked on, but don’t start doing that. It’s absurd!”

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