Andy Roddick revealed on “FOX Sports Live” this week that he nearly fought Novak Djokovic following their match at the 2008 US Open.
You may recall that prior to the match, Roddick accused Djokovic of faking multiple injuries. In his pre-match news conference, Roddick went along with a reporter who cited all of Djokovic’s injuries, only Roddick jokingly added in a few others like bird flu and anthrax.
“If it’s there, it’s there,” Roddick said prior to their match. “It’s just a lot. He’s either quick to call the trainer or he’s the most courageous guy of all time.”
Djokovic beat Roddick 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 in that quarterfinal match. Nole addressed the injury controversy in an interview after the match. He was booed by the New York crowd as soon as he brought up the injury issue.
“Well, obviously Andy was saying I had 16 injuries,” Djokovic said in his interview. “Obviously I don’t, right?
“I know they [the crowd] are already against me because they think I am faking everything,” Djokovic said. “That’s not nice anyhow to say in front of this crowd that I have 16 injuries and that I’m faking it.”
Roddick heard the interview, and that ticked him off. As he explained on FOX Sports Live this week, the interview led him to go after Djokovic in the locker room and nearly fight his opponent.
“I got into an in-the-locker room after a match confrontation with this tennis player one time. I was talking trash, and he came out and beat the pants off me [in the match], as he would, but then kind of chirped afterward,” Roddick said on the show. “So he comes straight [into the locker room], I went right up to him, had him up against the locker. But then I realized his trainer was a little bit bigger than Donovan (McNabb) and I kind of checked myself. So I kind of backed off real quick.”
Roddick also tweeted Thursday to clarify that despite his issues with Djokovic five years ago, the two are fine now.
There is no feud…. Normal athlete emotional stuff that is instantly regrettable hahaha. @djokernole and I have been ok for a long time now
— andyroddick (@andyroddick) October 3, 2013
Below are the videos that show what led to the fight.
Racket clap to Beyond the Baseline
