Novak Djokovic is not nominated for the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award. This has led to his fans playing on the path the Serbian player has often taken- aggression. In a recent Twitter squabble, Djokovic fans roasted Martina Navratilova for her age.

While Novak did not say anything about the decision of the authorities, his fans are not ready to let this go.

Roasting Navratilova might have gone too far

The squabble between Djokovic’s fans and former tennis stars, Rennae Stubbs and Martina Navratilova, took an ugly angle. Fans have been so invested in the idea of Novak being the “ideal sportsman” that they bitterly overstepped the line themselves. While Rennae Stubbs tried to defend her stance on Twitter by posting about the instances when Djokovic could have acted better, his fans were not ready to accept defeat.

Stubbs said, “Novak is not a great sport on court, he’s been defaulted, broken racquets…He’s absolutely a gracious loser, I’ll give him that, but this award is for sportsmanship on and off court.”

Following this, a Djokovic fan tweeted their reply, “He defaulted in 2020. This is a year-by-year award…Point me to an example of Novak breaking a racquet this year. He is a SHINING example of sportsmanship off the court”.

As requested, Stubbs pointed this fan to examples of Djokovic’s aggression in 2022. Martina Navratilova added to the argument by tweeting, “You will never win an argument with these guys- I stopped trying a while back:)”

Novak fans were quick to not miss a beat and attack Navratilova for her age. In what continued as an ugly under-the-belt attempt, a fan wrote, “You are 40+martina why tf you arguing on Twitter” with a disappointed face.

It did not stop there. Others were quick to back them up and realizing it is futile to argue with these people, Martina tweeted, “Ok- you’re just nasty. I tried. Bye now…”

The banter has earlier been misguided by Martina as well, when she lost her temper and tweeted, “A**hole much?”.

What’s up with Djokovic?

Not being nominated for the award has only added to the list of uneventful stuff happening to Djokovic this year. However, the visa ban on Novak that was imposed due to his vaccination status has been revoked and fans are looking forward to his comeback in the Australian Open in 2023. His win in the recent ATP finals has been very promising, to say the least.

While Djokovic’s arch-nemesis Nadal is a nominee for the Sportsmanship Awards, we hope that Novak is not very far from being in the list next year.