Will Novak Djokovic ever learn?
The hot-headed No. 1 men’s tennis player lost his cool again on Tuesday, hitting his racket against the court on her way to a quarter-final victory at the Australian Open.
Djokovic became furious and scarred the court after losing a point to Alexander Zverev in the third set.
The 33-year-old Serb bounced back for a 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (6) victory over the No. 6 seed, while looking forward to a ninth Australian Open title add to his men’s record.
“I regained my focus a little after breaking that racket,” said Djokovic in an interview in court. “Things started to shift a bit in a positive direction for me.”
“It was a relief to me, but I wouldn’t recommend this kind of relief channel, if you want to mention it,” Djokovic later told reporters. “I am of course not proud of that, but you go through many different emotions, you go through an inner struggle. Everybody is different. I have my own demons to fight with. “
Djokovic has been fighting demons for a while.
Most recently, he was disqualified from the US Open in September after hitting a ball in frustration and inadvertently punching a linesman in the throat.
That outburst cost him his winning streak of 29 games.
“I’m going to take this as deeply as possible for myself as a big lesson,” said Djokovic at the time.