Novak Djokovic's extraordinary meltdown when tempers boiled over at French Open
Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic has been crowned champion at Roland Garros on three occasions, though his most recent success didn't come without an outburst
Novak Djokovic couldn't keep a lid on his frustrations during the 2023 French Open final, furiously accusing an umpire of rushing him. The 24-time major winner had long failed to grasp glory at Roland Garros, but in 2016, he bested Andy Murray to complete a Career Grand Slam.
Since then, the Serbian perennial champion has been victorious twice more on the clay of Paris and eased through an opening-round clash this time around against American Mackenzie McDonald in straight sets. He beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2021 to lift the title.
And two years later, he breezed past Carlos Alcaraz en route to another final on Court Philippe Chatrier, where he'd face Casper Ruud.
Although the match ended up being a rather straightforward affair, the first set frustrated Djokovic, whose temper boiled over during an altercation with umpire Damien Dumusois. Norwegian challenger Ruud broke Djokovic early, and in a tight opening set, he sat on a 5-6 lead with the battling Serb up to serve next.
However, in what was a crucial game, Djokovic felt as though he was not being given an ample amount of time to changeover by umpire Dumusois.
Djokovic asked: "Where is the rush? Why are you rushing?" He was serving to stay in the set for the second time, before Dumusois hit back and replied: "I'm not."
"Wait for us to sit down and then call the score," continued the Serb, whose anger was clearly building. "Can you call the score when we come down or not? We're playing one hour and 10 minutes for one set, best-of-five Grand Slam on clay. I mean, you're rushing the score. There's 10 seconds left."
The umpire swiftly replied: "You can see that I'm really trying to understand," but Djokovic interrupted, clarifying that he was unhappy with the time given to changeover.
Icon Tim Henman was on commentary duty for Eurosport, and chimed in on the exchange, saying: "I think it has actually been an issue at the change of ends how quickly they have been having to change around, not just between points. They are both complaining about different things and the umpire has got his hands full!"
Simon Reed also commented, adding: "I think he's hardly rushing Novak, to be honest, but Novak feels rushed. He is exerting a little bit of pressure on him. Casper is seemingly trying to put on the opposite pressure."
Bickering then ceased, and while many may have thought such an altercation would bug Djokovic, it did not. Returning to the baseline, he held to force a tiebreak and ran away with that 7-1.
After an hour and 21 minutes, the first set went in Djokovic's favour. What occurred next can only be described as pure dominance. Djokovic claimed the next set by a decisive 6-3 scoreline.
The last set would mirror the first, but no tiebreak was necessary as the Serbian star won it 7-5 to be crowned French Open champion for a third time.
With this victory, he surpassed the great Rafael Nadal with 23 Grand Slam titles, as the Spaniard sat on 22, and later retired in December 2024 with that same number to his name.
Djokovic, on the other hand, would go on to win the US Open that year, bringing his major tally to an unfathomable 24, and added an Olympic gold medal to his mantlepiece the following year.
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