Wimbledon crowd has already ‘disrespected’ Novak Djokovic ahead of Cameron Norrie clash | Tennis | Sport

Novak Djokovic will face an uphill battle to win over a patriotic Centre Court crowd on Friday as he takes on British star Cameron Norrie in a battle to enter the men’s singles final for the fifth time in a row. And having already been ‘disrespected’ in last year’s final against Matteo Berrettini, the Serbian star is no stranger to backlash at Wimbledon on the big stage.

Djokovic has easily dispatched of Soon Woo Kwon, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Miomir Kecmanovic, Tim van Rijthoven and Jannik Sinner so far in this year’s tournament, dropping just four sets overall. He faces Norrie in the semi-final, who has never ventured past the third round in a Grand Slam before.

As a result, the majority of fans in Wimbledon will be cheering his name in a bid to drag him over the line to a final against Nick Kyrgios. And whilst this may be detrimental to Djokovic’s chances of winning a fourth-straight title in SW19, he already has a previous history of not being cheered on in the latter stages of the tournament.

“This is going to offend Novak Djokovic personally,” Andrew Castle said in last year’s commentary of the Wimbledon final. “There are a lot of people in here supporting Djokovic, you just can’t hear them.”

Boris Becker also followed that up last year by agreeing with Castles. “Yeah he doesn’t like it. He feels disrespected,” Becker added.

And Castles further agreed by putting himself in the shoes of the 20-time Grand Slam champion by looking at his body language. “That’s a very strong hold and that’s full of character, ‘who do you think you’re dealing with here? The best player of all time. ‘I come here and win five times and you still don’t love me? How dare you!'” he said.

“That’s exactly the conversation he’s having.” The winner will face Kyrgios on Sunday afternoon after the Australian received a walkover win against Rafael Nadal.