Home

Tennis

‘Imagine That Was Novak’ – Reilly Opelka Points Out the Injustice to Novak Djokovic After the Ill-Fated Incident at French Open 2022

Published 05/31/2022, 12:05 PM EDT

Follow Us

via Reuters

This year’s French Open has been a pretty successful tournament so far, in terms of crowd and the quality of matches. However, two events involving the Russian player, Andrey Rublev, and the Romanian player, Irina-Camelia Begu, have caused a massive stir on social media. Many fans on Twitter compared both the incidents with the US Open 2020 incident of Novak Djokovic, where the Serb was defaulted from the match after hitting a line judge.

Earlier, former tennis stars like Andy Roddick and Kim Clijsters reacted to the incident. Now, the 24-year-old big-serving American tennis star. Reilly Opelka also reacted to the incident on his social media. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Reilly Opelka compared the Irina-Camelia Begu incident with Novak Djokovic 

Earlier, Reilly Opelka retweeted a video from the Tennis Channel, where they talked about the Begu racket throwing incident. In the caption, Opelka wrote, “Imagine that was Novak..”

Notably, Begu almost hit a child in the crowd after throwing her racket. After a discussion with the supervisor, the chair umpire decided not to penalize her severely; She only received a code violation. 

Trending

Get instantly notified of the hottest Tennis stories via Google! Click on Follow Us and Tap the Blue Star.

Follow Us

Opelka was probably referring to the US Open incident in 2020, where Novak hit the line judge on the throat. Also, Opelka has been a massive supporter of Novak in the past as he used to shut down fans for trash-talking about the Serb. 

The Begu incident has also drawn criticism from the fans, as many believed the Romanian player should have been punished more severely. It is worth noting that Begu only received a $10,000 fine from the French Open authority. 

Andrey Rublev also received a hefty fine at the French Open 2022

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

During his first-round match against the South Korean, Kwon Soon-woo, Andrey Rublev lost his cool completely. After losing the first set, he hit a ball carelessly, which almost hit a ground staff on the head. Then he threw a water bottle on the ground in pure frustration. Even though he won the match, he received an $8,000 fine from Roland Garros. However, he later apologized for the unfortunate event. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Watch This Story: Epic Rafael Nadal vs Novak Djokovic encounters at the French Open 

Meanwhile, the Russian tennis player has reached the last eight and will face the Croatian Marin Cilic in the quarter-final tomorrow. 

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Debkinkar Maity

1,491Articles

One take at a time

Debkinkar Maity is a Tennis Author at EssentiallySports. His desire to become a sports journalist inspired him to take up a degree in journalism and mass communication, and he hasn't looked back ever since. Following the sport for over a decade now, Debkinkar has an ardent love for Roger Federer.
Show More>

Edited by:

Deepakshi Chaudhary