Sitting in the stands for Sunday's final, I got a real sense of how the crowd can effect a match, or how complicated a player’s relationship with the fans can get.
In the beginning of the final, it seemed like the crowd was evenly split between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic supporters. But as the match moved on, some really wanted a fifth set regardless of who they were rooting for, while the Nadal fans started getting louder and louder.
The real shame was when someone yelled and interrupted Djokovic’s ball toss as he was about to hit a second serve while facing a match point.
The Serb ended up double-faulting to hand Nadal the victory, and it was such an anti-climactic end to a very tight match.
Djokovic was visibly furious at the interruption and tried his best to stay composed, but he did give a sarcastic thumbs up to some Spanish supporters on his way to shake Nadal’s hand at the net.
Djokovic got a standing ovation that lasted for over a minute but something tells me he’ll never forget that person who interrupted him.
Asked about it more than once in the press conference, Djokovic was forced to say: “Let’s not talk about the crowd, please.”
The tension was palpable during the final and it seems it really took its toll physically on the players.
After Nadal received the trophy from Bjorn Borg, the Spaniard was cramping so badly that the trainer came out and tried to help him as he took care of his media duties.
He may have been smiling during the photoshoot with the trophy but Nadal was in serious pain.
