The world No 1 is the best player on the planet but his disqualification at the US Open was the latest example of his knack for damaging himself
A US Open bound to be remembered for oddities like empty stadiums, social distancing and bubbles within bubbles took its strangest detour yet on a sweltering Sunday afternoon in Queens when Novak Djokovic, the best player in the world and top seed in the men’s draw, was defaulted from his fourth-round match with Spain’s Pablo Carreño Busta after accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball struck in a moment of ill temper.
The shock expulsion was, as the USTA’s statement quickly clarified, the correct decision regardless of Djokovic’s intent, and one that has further rocked a tournament already compromised by absent holders and watered-down fields. We may be through with 2020, but 2020 ain’t through with us.
Related: ‘So unintended. So wrong’: Novak Djokovic apologises after US Open disqualification
