Coach Patrick Mouratoglou thinks Novak Djokovic beating Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal is one of the reasons why the crowds all around the world started to “hate” the Serb. Djokovic, a record 24-time Grand Slam champion, is often facing hostile environments and having the crowd against him. On the other side, Federer and Nadal – who also belong to the Big Three group – never experienced anything similar “Rafa and Roger were the biggest superstars of tennis, but Novak came in and beat both of them and the crowds hated him for that. I think he is booed for other reasons as well. He [Novak Djokovic] says he doesn’t like this negativity, but sometimes he pushes the crowd to boo him because it helps him during the matches. What we should not forget is has 14 million followers on Instagram, he is a huge hero in Serbia. He is the biggest name in tennis and we will all miss him when he stops playing the sport,” Mouratoglou said at the UTS London.
Djokovic on ‘thriving’ in hostile environments
By now, 36-year-old Djokovic has gotten pretty accustomed to playing in hostile environments. Still, Djokovic is regularly winning Grand Slam and other biggest tournaments in the world. Just a couple of days ago, Djokovic explained how he learned to be at his best when the whole stadium is against him. “The amount of pressure and stress is so much higher if you have crowd against you. Absolutely. But (laugh) for most of my career, it was mostly hostile environments for me. I kind of learned how to thrive in that environment. And people think that it’s actually better if, if they don’t like me so that it kind of gets the best out of me in terms of tennis. It did happen. But at the same time, I actually enjoy more (laugh) being in an environment where, you know, I have nice, nice support,” Djokovic recently said on 60 Minutes on CBS News.
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