Andy Roddick once pinned Novak Djokovic to locker when pair came to blows after feisty US Open match

Posted by Aldo Pusey on Monday, June 10, 2024

The US Open has produced some brilliant battles over the years and sometimes they can spill over into locker room.

Andy Roddick recalled one such incident where a bust-up with 21-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic ended in the latter being pinned up against a locker.

The American, who won the US Open in 2003, faced the Serbian in the quarter-finals of the 2008 tournament and things were tense in the build-up.

Roddick accused Djokovic of faking an injury and joked his opponent might have ‘a back and a hip (injury)? And a cramp, bird flu or SARS?’

Djokovic won in four sets against his opponents and called out the American in his post-match interview, that drew boos from the home crowd.

"I am really happy playing against Roddick on his court and in his city in his favourite tournament, so to win against him is a huge effort,” Djokovic said.

"That's not nice, anyhow, to say in front of this crowd that I have 16 injuries and I am faking it.

"I have nothing against anybody. Andy was saying that I have 16 injuries in the last match, so obviously I don't, right? Like it or not, it's like that.

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"They (the crowd) are already against me because they think I am faking everything, so sorry."

Roddick later revealed what went on behind the scenes after all that was said publicly.

"I got in an in-the-locker-room, after-a-match confrontation with this tennis player one time," Roddick said.

"I won't say his name, I'll just say it rhymes with 'Schmovak Schmokovic'...and we got into at US Open one time.

"I was kind of talking trash and he came out and beat the pants off of me as he would.

"But (he) then kind of chirped afterward and he came straight in, I went right up to him and had him up against the locker.

"But then I realised his trainer was about a little bit bigger than Donovan (McNabb, a former NFL quarterback, who appeared on the Fox show with Roddick) here, and I kind of checked myself.

"My trainer is about 5-foot-8, 130 (pounds), and can dodge raindrops. I kind of backed off real quick. I was about to get railroaded from the side.”

Djokovic went on to lose in the semi-finals to Roger Federer, who then went on to win the tournament by beating Andy Murray in the final.

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