Happy Slam? Bogan Slam, more like it. The hostility is a Djoke

Boo! Not to Novak Djokovic, but to the appallingly badly behaved and boorish crowd at the so-called Happy Slam.

Grace of a champion … despite the booing of the crowd, Novak Djokovic gave a thumbs up as he retired hurt. Picture: Getty Images

Happy Slam? You’re Djoking. The champ deserved better. We might never see him again.

The self-appointed title seems dubious at best after the disgraceful reaction to Novak Djokovic’s withdrawal from the Australian Open. He’s won it 10 times. Has he not entertained us? He was so seriously injured in Friday’s semi-final that he retired after dropping the first set 7-6 to Alex Zverev, dunking a forehand volley into the net to lose a tie-breaker 7-5 before shaking the hand of his unbelieving, mildly grieving German opponent.

How did the Happy Slam crowd respond to this sad, incredibly sad, impossibly sad moment? By booing the greatest champion the Open has ever seen.

Thank you ballboys, thank you electronic linesmen, thank you boorish crowd. What a sham. It’s a great slam, no doubt. A wild slam, a rough-around-the-edges slam, a big-hearted slam, a dinky-di top-bloke of a slam. But it ain’t the Happy Slam. Ask Danielle Collins, and ask every other international player who gets mocked, hissed, jeered, razzed and abused. They call it the Bogan Slam. Happy ain’t the right fit.

A heartbroken Djokovic was all class when he departed Rod Laver Arena, probably for the last time, with two thumbs in the air while unsympathetic patrons blew him their angry and inappropriate raspberries. “I don’t know,” the 37-year-old Serb said when asked if this was his final Open.

“There is a chance. Who knows? I’ll just have to see how the season goes. I want to keep going but whether I’m going to have a revised schedule or not for the next year, I’m not sure. I normally like to come to Australia to play. I’ve had the biggest success in my career here. If I’m fit, healthy, motivated, I don’t see a reason why I wouldn’t come. But there’s always a chance, yeah.”

He deserved better, yeah.

His torn hamstring was heavily strapped. Zverev put the patrons in their place with a post-match speech that was all class.

“The very first thing I want to say is, ‘Please, guys, don’t boo a player when he goes out with injury’,” Zverev said. “I know everybody paid for tickets and everybody wants to see a great five-set match but he has given the sport so much for the past 20 years. Absolutely everything in his life. He has won the tournament with an abdominal tear, he has won it with a hamstring tear and if he cannot continue – really, show some love for Novak.”

Djokovic was gutted. He marched through Melbourne Park’s corridors with a furrowed brow and heavy heart. You were tempted to give him a hug.

After all the harassment he’s received from Australian audiences in his 20 years at the Open, after all the epic matches he’s played with the crowd rallying against him, after he was detained and deported by the Australian government for his anti-vaccination stance, he still gave us a thumbs up.

The response was somewhere between disappointing and disgraceful. Take your pick. “If I won the first set, maybe I would try a few more games, half a set, maybe a set. I don’t know,” Djokovic said.

“It was getting worse and worse. Even if I won the first set, it’s going to be a huge uphill battle for me to stay physically fit enough to stay with him in the rallies for another God-knows-what. Two, three, four hours? I don’t think I had that, unfortunately, in the tank.”

Djokovic is an out-and-out champion. Do we appreciate that? An athlete whose 24 major titles puts him alongside Don Bradman, Muhammad Ali, Pele and anyone else you care to mention as all-time great athletes.

We’re lucky he’s visited out shores for two decades. So disappointing and/or disgraceful. Can someone offer an apology before he gets to the airport?

“I’m upset,” he said. “But at the same time Australia always will stay in my head, in my heart, as the best slam I’ve ever played and ever performed in. I cannot throw away all the incredible memories and results and achievements that I’ve achieved here … but injury is the biggest enemy of the professional athlete.”