TV presenter Rennae Stubbs took an interview featuring Novak Djokovic on court after the Serbian legend won his second round match of the US Open. Fans around the world who watched that match were stunned to see Stubbs being selected to do the same by the US Open broadcasters. Naturally, the Grand Slam has been called out for the same as Stubbs is not exactly a favourite with many Djokovic supporters.

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TheIn the past, Stubbs has made some nasty comments on Djokovic, which seems to have created animosity between the two. She also has criticised Serbians in general in one of her previous podcasts, as she believes they suffer from ‘victim mentality’.

The Djokovic-Stubbs beef in recent years

Rennae Stubbs, who is a former tennis player from Australia, has made headlines for her anti-Djokovic comments. One instance was in 2022 when she publicly claimed that the 23-time Grand Slam champion did not deserve the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award despite many instances of Novak Djokovic being a good sport. She cited the example of Djokovic being defaulted at the US Open 2020 for nearly injuring a lineswoman after hurling a ball in anger. Here’s her tweet from November 2022 –

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Earlier that year in January, she also had a say on Novak Djokovic getting deported from Australia which also involved him having to lie in some documents about his coronavirus vaccination. It was a complete mess, which became a saga of its own just prior to the Australian Open in Melbourne. During that period, Djokovic himself had tested positive for the virus, which made Stubbs furious. She tweeted the following on the same –

But that’s not at all. In January 2023, after Novak Djokovic regained his dominance at the Australian Open, Stubbs accused Serbians in general of considering themselves as victims and getting too political at the Grand Slam. This is because she must have seen a section of Novak Djokovic supporters wearing pro-Putin and Russian shirts during the final match.

However, nothing has been said by Novak Djokovic publicly about all this. In fact, during the interview, he had a light-hearted take on Stubbs’ question on whether the 36-year-old Djokovic of today would have been able to beat the 26-year-old version of his hypothetically. Djokovic answered very much in the affirmative, with the words ‘In straight sets’. He was quoted as saying –

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“Easy. Easy. No problem. Straight sets for me, for the 36-year-old,” Djokovic said.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to play myself. But I do. Every single match, I play myself the most in my mind. If I win this battle, then I win the battle outside against the opponent,” he concluded.

Fans have slammed the US Open nevertheless for Stubbs’ inclusion in this, calling her ‘xenophobic’, ‘racist’, ‘double-faced’, ‘shameless’ and ‘snake’ amongst other derogatory words. Apparently, Rennae Stubbs is not only been controversial when it comes to her views on Novak Djokovic. She had also come under fire for her negative Black Lives Matter question in an interview with Naomi Osaka at the US Open 2020.

Fans laud Novak Djokovic for being ‘large hearted’

Novak Djokovic is winning hearts on the internet for having apparently forgiven Rennae Stubbs. Djokovic knew that Stubbs was taking the interview and could have backed out, but still went ahead with it and gave some interesting answers with a smile. For handling Stubbs with grace, here is what tennis lovers and Djokovic supporters had to say about the interview –

Well, Novak Djokovic played that out very smartly. This could mean either one of two things – 1) He has really matured due to being more spiritual with his tennis disciplines and life in general or/and, 2) He isn’t yet ready to hit back at Rennae Stubbs publicly yet and he might reveal his true thoughts on his controversy once he retires from the game. Putting it all behind, Djokovic is all set to play his third round match on Friday.

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