Novak Djokovic’s wife gets salty as US Open row with tennis magazine escalates

Novak Djokovic’s wife Jelena has taken aim at a tennis magazine with a string of salty tweets after the publication called the player out for entering the Canadian Open despite the fact he’s unable to travel to Canada as he hasn’t been vaccinated against COVID-19. And the publication then told Jelena that her husband should withdraw from the US Open as the row escalated.

On Thursday, Djokovic pulled out of the Montreal tournament, which is due to get underway on Monday. And Racquet Magazine soon took to Twitter to reveal what they thought of the situation. “Dunno why this guy keeps entering tournaments hoping they’ll change their rules for him,” they tweeted.

But Jelena took exception to the post, which has been liked by more than 2000 people as she replied: “Is this a real, international tennis magazine?! @atptour. Wow.” The 36-year-old then added four shocked face emojis.

Racquet Magazine then responded to Jelena and told her they hoped her husband would change his vaccination stance and make an appearance at the US Open, which he is also currently unable to play in. “Hi Jelena,” they tweeted. “We’d love to see your husband play in New York, along with the rest of the tennis world. Hopefully he’ll decide he can follow the rules.”

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But Jelena was only interested in dealing with the publication’s original tweet as she reminded them that entry into competitions is done automatically. “Hi,” she wrote as the conversation continued. “Based on tennis rules and ranking – Novak’s entry in the tournament was automatic. So, what was the logic behind your tweet?”

And Racquet Magazine then decided to double down on their criticism of the 21-time Grand Slam champion as they sent out another tweet. “As of right now, he’s also automatically entered into Cincy and the USO – is he gonna withdraw from them now knowing he doesn’t want to follow rules or wait until the last minute like he’s just done for Montreal? Or maybe after the draw is made like he did in Indian Wells?”

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And in a final tweet directed at Jelena, the publication added: “Not trying to disrupt your Friday night, but since you came our way, it’d be great to get him to take his stand by withdrawing from those events now so the whole tennis world isn’t talking about him not getting a shot for weeks to come. A stand is only a stand if one takes it.”

Djokovic’s wife continued the row, by responding: “His most important stand is to be a tennis champion. And he took it. I mean, a stand is a stand. Given that you are a tennis magazine- maybe focus on that in the weeks to come? Take a stand. Be what you are meant to be. A tennis magazine that writes about tennis,” accompanied by a thumbs up emoji.

Djokovic has won the US Open on three occasions. But unless President Joe Biden relaxes COVID-19 restrictions when entering the United States, the Serbian won’t be allowed to play at the tournament and could have to wait until next May to compete in another Grand Slam as he is also currently banned from Australia for three years after he was deported from the country at the start of last year.