Wimbledon 2015: Djokovic sorry after losing cool with ball girl

It has been a Wimbledon marked by angry outbursts and Novak Djokovic is the latest player to lose his temper | WATCH

A ball-girl offers tennis balls to Serbia's Novak Djokovic who wipes his face with a towel after a point against South Africa's Kevin Anderson.

It has been a Wimbledon marked by angry outbursts and overnight the world No 1, Novak Djokovic, became the latest player to lose his temper.

The reigning champion promised to apologise to a ball girl after he shouted at her for a towel during his match on No 1 Court. The incident happened after he lost a point when he was down three games to two in the fifth set against Kevin Anderson.

A spectator said: “He came storming over and screamed at her ‘towel, towel, towel’. The ball girl was trembling and she looked close to tears but she held herself together pretty well. She kept her head down and stayed on court. Djokovic was completely out of order.”

In April, Djokovic had apologised after shouting and snatching a towel from the ball boy during his victory over Andy Murray in the Miami Open. Djokovic said at the time: “As a father, I wouldn’t wish that something like this happens to my son.”

Following the outburst he said: “I just took out everything I had, not on anybody but me. Sometimes it’s just good to scream and let it all out.

“I’m sorry. There was nothing towards her [the ball girl]. Maybe she was just afraid of my screaming. I was pretty close to her. I’m definitely going to try to apologise to her if I did something wrong.”

Prior to the outbursts this year, Djokovic had been regarded as a friendly figure among ball boys and girls. He once asked one teenager to sit with him under an umbrella during a rain shower at the French Open, letting him hold his racket and then share a drink.

The All England Club’s referees’ office was understood to have been reviewing the incident yesterday. Djokovic could be fined up to $25,000 if found guilty of a “code violation”.

Wimbledon’s 250 ball boys and girls are aged between 13 and 19 with an average age of 15. They are paid £165 for the fortnight’s work.

On Monday Nick Kyrgios hugged a ball boy who was trying to hand him a towel during his third-round defeat. His apparent attempt to amuse the crowds has begun to draw critics among spectators. Despite his exit from Wimbledon, Kyrgios’s erratic behaviour on and off the court continued to be talked about around SW19 yesterday after he accused one of Australia’s most revered sportswomen of being a racist.

Dawn Fraser, 77, an Australian Olympic swimming champion, said that Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic, a fellow Australian who last week criticised the Australian tennis authorities, were a disgrace to their country and should set a better example or “go back to where their fathers or their parents came from”. She added: “We don’t need them here in this country if they act like that.”

Kyrgios, 20, was born in Canberra to a Malaysian mother and a Greek father. Tomic’s Croatian father and Bosnian mother moved to Australia when he was three.

Responding to Fraser’s comments, Kyrgios wrote on his Facebook page: “Throwing a racket, brat. Debating the rules, disrespectful. Frustrated when competing, spoilt. Showing emotion, arrogant. Blatant racist, Australian legend.” His mother, Nill, wrote: “I have no comments on Dawn Fraser’s nasty racist attack ... but she is out of line.”

Fraser denied that her remarks were racist, saying: “I’m not a racist person. If you take it that way then I’m sorry that you take it that way, but I’m not racist at all. I said they were not good Australians by behaving the way they are on court.”

Gabriella Swerling contributed to this article

The Times