"This is disrespectful, doing this cause he’s losing" - Tennis fans call out Novak Djokovic for heated exchange with chair umpire in Italian Open QF 

Novak Djokovic's argument with the chair umpire during his quarterfinal defeat to Holger Rune at the Italian Open has received backlash from tennis fans.

After losing the first set 6-2, Djokovic managed to level the scores in a rain-interrupted second set. However, Rune mounted a strong comeback in the deciding set as he raced to a 4-0 lead and ultimately won the match 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

A controversial moment took place in the third set, which further amped up the drama quotient of the contest. Serving at 0-2, 15-30, Novak Djokovic was handed a time violation, after which he snapped at chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani. Djokovic was seemingly unhappy with how long Lahyani took to call out the score.

“What’s the drama, waiting in between English and Italian? What are you acting here or what?” the Serb yelled.

“This is how you do what? Why do you call the score for 20 seconds? Just call it a score, for God’s sake!” he added.

Tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg praised the 22-time Grand Slam champion for directly calling out Lahyani's "showmanship."

"Never seen a player directly call out Mo Lahyani’s showmanship, but this is overdue. Good on Novak. I have a suspicion Lahyani might even be a Netflix subject this cycle (he’s been mic’d up often)…seems to be acting especially over the top, even for him," Rothenberg tweeted.

Rothenberg's praise for Djokovic's behavior, however, received criticism from several fans. They suggested that the Serb had only engaged in the argument because he was on the verge of losing the match.

"Novak just happened to choose the moment he realized that his match against Rune was hopeless to do us all this great service of calling out the best umpire on the tour, ok. Or, more likely, it was convenient rage projection," a fan commented.

"Good on Novak? This is disrespectful. He's doing this cause he's losing," one user commented.

Many other fans questioned Djokovic's problem with Lahyani's way of calling the score, given that he had played on the tour for 20 years without being affected by it before.

"Mo is known for the distinctive way he announces the score, he’s been doing it his entire career. It hasn’t bothered Novak in 20 years he’s been a pro, so why is it bothering him now?," a fan commented.

"So Novak is all of a sudden upset after 20 years of mo doing the score like that .. yeah right...bad take from you," another fan posted.

Here are some more fan reactions:

How Novak Djokovic has fared during the clay-court season so far

Novak Djokovic at the 2023 Italian Open

Novak Djokovic commenced his 2023 claycourt campaign with a straight-sets victory over Ivan Gakhov at the Monte-Carlo Masters. However, he was unable to progress further in the tournament, losing to Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 5-7, 4-6 in the third round.

The Serb competed at the Srpska Open next, where he battled past Luca Van Assche 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-2 before falling to compatriot Dusan Lajovic in straight sets. His title defense at the Italian Open came to an end at the hands of Holger Rune in the quarterfinals.