Top Men's Tennis Player Novak Djokovic Smashes Ball at Official, Gets DQ'd From U.S. Open

Novak Djokovic is the No. 1 men's tennis player in the world, and he won't get a chance to prove it after an antic he pulled Sunday at the U.S. Open that got him booted from the tournament.

Djokovic, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, was trailing Pablo Carreño Busta, 6-5, in the first set of a fourth-round match. In obvious frustration because of losing serve, he grabbed a tennis ball from his pocket and angrily hit a forehand towards the back of the court. The ball flew off his racket and smashed a line judge in the head.

The line judge fell to the court, and Djokovic looked like it was completely unintentional. Regardless, Djokovic was disqualified—or defaulted—from the tournament.

Darren Cahill is a veteran tennis coach who was covering the match for ESPN. He said the tournament made the correct decision in defaulting the world's top player.

"Players have been defaulted for less," Cahill said. "I think the tournament made the right decision."

The United States Tennis Association posted its rules Sunday night that state because of the nature of Djokovic's default, he will lose all ranking points earned from the beginning of the tournament.

"In accordance with the Grand Slam rulebook, following his actions of hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with negligent disregard of the consequences, the U.S. Open tournament referee defaulted Novak Djokovic from the 2020 U.S. Open. Because he was defaulted, Djokovic will lose all ranking points earned at the U.S. Open and will be fined the prize money won at the tournament in addition to any or all fines levied with respect to the offending incident," the USTA stated.

Djokovic appeared to explain to tournament officials that he did not intentionally hit the line judge on purpose, which the video seems to show as well.

Djokovic, 33, has won 17 Grand Slam titles in his career, including three at the U.S. Open, eight at the Australian Open, five Wimbledon titles and one French Open championship.

The Serbian is the winner of this year's Australian Open, which is the only major that's been played so far during a COVID-shortened 2020 season.

He most recently won the U.S. Open at Arthur Ashes Stadium in Flushing Meadows, New York in 2018.

Djokovic has experienced great success at the U.S. Open, advancing to the finals eight times in his career. He lost three times to Rafael Nadal and once to Roger Federer, who are the only men to have won more major titles than him. Federer has 20 career Grand Slam wins and Nadal has 19. Djokovic is 17-9 in career Grand Slam finals.

Neither Nadal nor Federer are competing in this year's U.S. Open for different reasons. Federer has a knee injury while Nadal expressed concerns over COVID-19 safety.

Pablo Carreño Busta, a No. 20 seed who represents Spain, now advances to the quarterfinals.