ROME — Novak Djokovic’s angry glare made it clear how furious the 22-time Grand Slam champion was with his opponent.
And it wasn’t just because Cameron Norrie hit him in the left calf with an overhead smash after Djokovic had already turned his back and conceded a point early in the second set of the Serb’s 6-3, 6-4 win on Tuesday.
There were also other instances of bad sportsmanship from Norrie, Djokovic said after reaching the Italian Open quarterfinals for the 17th straight year.
Djokovic also took issue with how his British opponent took a medical time out just before he served out the match.
“I did watch the replay when he hit me. Maybe you could say he didn’t hit me deliberately,” Djokovic said when asked about his angry glare toward Norrie after the incident. “It was not so much maybe about that. … From the very beginning, he was doing all the things that were allowed. He’s allowed to take a medical timeout. He’s allowed to hit a player. He’s allowed to say ‘Come on’ in the face more or less every single point from basically first game.
“Those are the things that we players know in the locker room it’s not fair play, it’s not how we treat each other,” Djokovic said. “He brought the fire, and I responded to that. I’m not going to allow someone behaving like this just bending my head. I’m going to respond to that.”
Clearly motivated by Norrie’s behavior, Djokovic produced his best clay-court performance of the year against the 13th-seeded Norrie, who was not made available for comment.
Also on Campo Centrale, local hope Jannik Sinner was eliminated by Francisco Cerundolo 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-2. Cerundolo will play Casper Ruud, who beat Laslo Djere 6-1, 6-3.
In women’s action, two-time defending Rome champion Iga Swiatek beat Donna Vekic 6-3, 6-4 and will next face Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
Also, Paula Badosa got past Karolina Muchova 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-2 and will play 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.
Aiming for his seventh title at the Foro Italico, Djokovic had his entire game clicking after struggling at times in the previous rounds and in his previous two tournaments on clay.