John McEnroe Says Novak Djokovic ‘Is Going To Be The Bad Guy The Rest Of His Career’

After Novak Djokovic was defaulted from the U.S. Open for unintentionally hitting a line judge with a tennis ball, notorious tennis bad boy John McEnroe says the 33-year-old Djokovic “is going to be the bad guy the rest of his career.”

“The pressure just got to him I think. I think a lot’s been going on off the court. It’s obviously affected him and now whether he likes it or not, he’s going to be the bad guy the rest of his career,” McEnroe, the four-time U.S. Open champion, said on ESPN. “It’ll be interesting to see how he handles it.”

McEnroe, who was famously defaulted from the 1990 Australian Open for arguing with and abusing the umpire, supervisor and tournament referee, added: “I didn’t say he couldn’t recover. If he embraces that role, I think he could recover, absolutely. He’s chasing history, he’s trying to pass Rafa [Nadal] and Roger [Federer on the all-time Grand Slams list]. He’s younger, we all know that. He’s got a lot of things going for him, but this is obviously a stain that he’s not going to be able to erase, whether he likes it or not.

“It’s about how will he deal with this moving forward? What type of reaction will he get from the other players? What type of reaction will he get when fans start coming back to the sports arenas? These are all issues that you don’t know the answers to….I’m just amazed, amazed that he did something as bone-headed as that in a situation where he was the overwhelming favorite.”

It’s been quite the controversial 2020 for Djokovic, who left the grounds without addressing the media and issued a statement via Instagram. He was reportedly on his way to Rome, where he will play the warm-up event for the French Open, which begins Sept. 27.

McEnroe said the incident reminded him of when Bjorn Born lost to McEnroe in the 1981 U.S. Open final, left the grounds and never played another major again.

“He’s got a chance to go to the French Open and we’ll see what happens there,” McEnroe said of Djokovic.

Earlier this summer, Djokovic and his wife both contracted COVID-19, as did several other top players, on his ill-fated Adria Tour in Serbia and Croatia. Djokovic has since recovered from the virus.

Djokovic is also attempting to start a players’ union to rival the ATP, and has been rebuffed publicly by several top players, most notably Nadal and Federer.

“Novak has had quite the summer and careless in a lot of ways, starting with the Adria Tour,” 18-time Grand Slam champion Chrissie Evert said on ESPN.

“No safe distancing, no masks and he caught the Covid,” Evert added. “And in a lot of people’s minds. that was a little careless how he conducted that tournament and then this instance here.”

Djokovic said in his Instagram post that he checked with the line judge and the “tournament told me that Thank God she is feeling OK.”

“I’m extremely sorry to have caused her such stress,” he wrote. “So unintended. So wrong.”

Still, McEnroe criticized Djokovic for not speaking to the press before he left the grounds.

“You gotta man up there, that’s dumb,” he said. “It made no sense to me because normally in the past at least I’ve seen him take responsibility when he’s blown it and in this case, it just makes it even worse that he didn’t show up.

“So what if he apologized on Twitter on the way to the plane, that’s not good enough. But that’s what happened.”

Added Evert: “He made a terrible mistake, it wasn’t intentional. And I just think fans are forgiving and this is going to pass.”