Tennis star Novak Djokovic got himself booted from the US Open on Sunday after he — accidentally, it seems — hit a line judge in the throat with a tennis ball, sending her sprawling to the ground clutching her neck.
Djokovic’s suspension was pretty much automatic — the rules are clear — but rather than blame him for hitting a ball in frustration after play was over, his fans decided to take their anger out on the line judge instead.
As the Daily Mail explained:
Fans of the world No 1 were quick to take to social media, finding [the line judge’s] public profile and sending thousands of hate-filled messages, including death threats. …
[Her] son died in 2008, and one of Djokovic’s fans told her ‘don’t worry, you’ll join him soon’ … while another posted: ‘hahahahahahahaha YEEEEES, YEEEEEEEES.’
They were not much more polite on Twitter, calling her a “bitch,” a “cunt” and a “Karen,” and accusing her of exaggerating her pain after being struck by the ball.
There’s nothing, it seems, that online misogynists can’t blame on a woman, but blaming a woman for being hit with a ball is a new one for me.
She didn’t make the rule that got Djokovic disqualified. She didn’t force him to hit the ball in frustration. Her only crime was catching a fast-moving tennis ball in the neck.
Djokovic, for what it’s worth, has asked his fans to stop targeting her, noting that “she’s done nothing wrong.” But somehow I doubt that will shut them up.
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I saw this on TV earlier today while my mom was watching Fox. Fox made it seem like the fans were just frustrated, and didn’t make any mention of death threats. Because of course they didn’t.
I’ve watched the videos and read the rule book.
The rule is pretty clear, and seems intended precisely to avoid this sort of accident. It’s a health & safety issue; so people on court don’t have to keep an eye out for errant balls when a match is not in play.
You can smack the ball as hard as you want when you’re trying to score a point (and during warm up), and then the onus is on everyone else to avoid being hit.
And health & safety stuff tends to be strict liability; intention is irrelevant.
But those Twitter comments; ugh. There’s something particularly distasteful when people try to justify actions by saying they are defending another person; when that other person has stated they disagree with the action.
Djokovic himself deliberately didn’t name the official in his initial comments on the incident precisely to highlight she did nothing wrong. Which just makes it clear the ‘fans’ are nothing of the sort and just want an excuse to abuse and harass a woman.
I don’t know anything about tennis so I could be way off, but this makes it sound to me like it might have been intentional. Djokovic hit the ball under circumstances where he knew he wasn’t supposed to, which makes me think this probably wasn’t an accident on his part.
It’s really frustrating to me that a term was coined to give a name to a specific kind of racism that comes from white women and a bunch of misogynists were like, “Oh, hell yes, a word I’m allowed to call women I don’t like.”
I do follow tennis and this rule is unambiguous. The top British player of the time was kicked out of Wimbledon for hitting a ball kid under the same circumstances. Another player forfeited a match in a tournament final that he was winning for something similar.
Djokovic contributed to the fan response by ducking press and not making a statement until much later. If he had owned it straight away it would have helped.
Also he is an anti-vaxxer but that is a separate issue.
@SpecialFrog
It’s a separate issue, but I can’t say it really makes him look better. Due to crank magnetism, most antivaxxers are also misogynists and believe other conspiracy theories (like the many antisemitic ones). I steer clear of their kind as much as possible.
@Naglfar: Indeed. I was considering adding more reasons why I dislike Djokovic but decided to stop there.
Also Djokovic fans should know how hard he hits the ball so claims from them that it wasn’t travelling fast are especially dubious.
@Naglfar
I watched the match so I saw the incident as it happened. Earlier in the match, Djokovic had hit a ball in frustration towards the back of the court. He received no warning, and the ball didn’t come close to hitting anyone, so he set a precedent. Sometimes players will hit a ball into the net in frustration, not the wall, or they’ll hit their rackets on the ground.
I honestly don’t think Djokovic intended to hit the line judge. He was simply careless and stupid. The look on his face after the judge fell said it all. After being defaulted, he didn’t talk to the press and actually left the National Tennis Center grounds about an hour later. Some ESPN commentators said he should have met the press and publicly apologize, and I agree. He did, however, apologize on Instagram.
I don’t like Djokovic as a player or a person. He’s extremely arrogant, plus he’s a vocal anti-vaxxer. In this case, though, I really don’t think he deliberately aimed at the line judge.
@ginger
I agree as well. It’s telling that he let the misogynistic abuse happen first, then he made a statement.
Ugggh. Karen is not synonym for “bitch” and white men should not be using it at all.
Two observations:
1)Whether or not he hit the line judge on purpose, Djokovic deserved his expulsion from the US Open for sheer stupidity alone. In fact if it were up to me, he’d be banned from all major tennis tournaments for life.
2)Matt Booher is an asshole.
I don’t think white women should use it either, because I never saw one outside a very specific set of discussions about race use it to mean anything other than “bitch I disapprove of.” Yet somehow I am in the wrong if I point out the misogyny of this, and too sensitive, and jeez can’t some people take a joke it’s not that big of a deal, lighten up and don’t get your panties in a twist. Are you a Karen?
Basically, if you cannot use it in the original sense of the word (of which there definitely seems to be one despite know your meme protesting otherwise), you should not use it because it is a misogynist slur at that point.
People are not Karens for getting hit in the throat with a ball.
Big Titty Demon,
Yeah, I’ve pretty much stopped using it even though I had only used it in the correct context because so many white women are using it wrong. At the very least, white women need to be really careful. But white men, should never use it ever at all.
That reminds me, I got called a Karen on Twitter twice last week in two separate threads both because I opposed street harassment.
@WWTH, Big Titty Demon
Same here. I had used it before in what (I think) was the correct context, but have stopped since it got taken over by white dudebros. And yes, some white women are using it harmfully as well, but I think the bigger issue is the white men using it incorrectly. As a white woman, though, I feel it’s not a term for me to use either.
Yep, totally not a euphemism for a different misogynist slur in that context. Hard eyeroll at this. Did they not see the street harassment video of the woman exercising in New York, just wearing regular exercise clothes? Or they did and it’s Karen-y to complain about that, just men giving compliments?
I mean, it’s totally possible for a real Karen to call the police on some innocent Black man and say he harassed her, oh no, she’s afraid for her pure white life, please save her and lock him up. That is real Karen behavior we’ve seen. But it’s a totally separate issue that doesn’t negate the real problem of street harassment.
Although it’s totally on the police that they would come for that call and not for one against a white dude. -.-
I’m sleep-deprived, I feel like this comment is rambling away from me, sorry.
WTF, this is horrible! Why are dudes like this 🙁 I really hope the judge is going to be okay, a blow to the throat like that is no joke.
@Viscaria and others
Yeah the appropriation of Karen by white misogynists annoys me too. I’ve felt less unwilling to use it myself before because like… even as a white woman I’ve seen some really ridiculous behavior re: other white women calling cops on people. But I think at this point I’m just going to stop using it. Misogynists are invited to go roll in poison ivy, thx.
Djokovic’s fans have no problem with his notorious anger management issues. They also know that getting hit by a ball in the throat is no big deal. If it happened to them, they’d just man up. This line judge, however, apparently has no interest in manning up. Uh-oh, it turns out that the judge is a woman and can’t man up.Therefore she should die.
I hope she makes it out okay.
I have been discussing with my female cousins the delight with which misogynists of all types have jumped on Karen. It’s now akin to “socialist”. Just dismiss and shut down the person you disapprove of. I also think whatever the rules are, he smashed the ball having a hissy fit. Doesn’t matter if he didn’t intend to hit her. It was extremely reckless and has (as some of you have noted) happened before and wasn’t ok then either. And I didn’t see the same level of concern as was shown for that ball boy who was hit in England some years ago
I feel like this issue is so much more than simply misogyny. Granted, that’s pretty bad, but is death threats how we’re gonna handle all the people we disagree with now? Is that what humanity has just stooped to doing?
Whenever people don’t like something anyone did, or just want to punch down like the misogynists who are threatening this woman, we (I mean that in a generalized humanity way) are just gonna threaten to kill them? I’m trying to think of a person eroding in history where people were generally like that and I can only think of times when “duels” were a thing, and somebody’s honor was involved, but these people aren’t protecting anybody’s honor with this kind of sh*t.
And yeah, the term Karen was created in the black community to refer to a very specific criteria performed by white women. I do t use the term now because just like every term we create, it’s been appropriated by white people, who have bastardized this term, just to abuse women they disagree with. Yeah, that’s not what it’s for. As a general rule though, once terms we create hit the mainstream (i.e. white people/and they always do) black people will invent a new one, and stop using the old terms.
@PoM : maybe I am too optimistic, but the number of fan who are frustrated and didn’t sent death threat probably outnumber the one who did send death threat 10:1 or more.
At least Djokovic didn’t try to push too much the advantage of having a bunch of dickhead defend you. His behavior wasn’t good enough, but I now take “did not willingly create a death mob” as a pro for one’s moral nowaday.
@Ohlmann
That doesn’t matter. The toxicity of culture that allows people to think that threatening a woman with death is OK is a problem, regardless of what the proportions are. I doubt it’s just this one player who has toxic men in his fanbase, but his own behavior certainly doesn’t discourage them.
Okay, i’ve been hit in the neck with a tennis ball by someone who is not a pro-tennis player and let me tell you, that shit hurts, i can’t imagine what it would feel like with a full grown man and a pro tennis player doing it. I get that he wasn’t trying to hurt her and he felt bad about it but come on. he’s a grown man. He should know throwing a tantrum gives consequences. My mom and i were watching Naomi Osaka match and she threw her racket when she was having a tough match, my mom turned me and said “her mama gonna have something to say about that” because Naomi is my age.
@PoM : sure, the majority need to be reminded that they abide and facilitate that kind of excess.
Still, if most were just frustrated, the correct reporting is still that the fans are frustrated, then only talking about the one that go way too far. (and probably put the role of facilitator in stark light)
In other word, it *DOES* matter. Just like it matter that fascisms proponent aren’t the silent majority, but a chunky and agitated minority facilitated by way too many apathic / fearful / intimidated people.
O/T: TERFs have declared that because a male YouTuber (who AFAIK is cis) has a higher voice and looks young, he must secretly be a trans* man trying to convince girls who like programming that they are men or non-binary.