Andy Roddick hit back after Novak Djokovic’s mother called Roger Federer “arrogant”. The former world No 1 said that such comments are “just unnecessary”.
In an interview on Tennis Channel, Roddick said that the stories coming out of Djokovic’s camp of late are “concerning”.
Djokovic’s mother Dijana had earlier said that her son was helped by God to win the 2019 Wimbledon final against Federer after being two match points down. She also said that the lop-sided support for Federer in that match annoyed her because she felt the Swiss was “a little arrogant”.
“In the match where everyone is cheering for Federer, a handful of us cheered for Novak,” she said. “It’s not convenient to say whether Federer or someone else annoys me, but it annoys me because he’s a little arrogant.”
Reacting to this statement, Roddick said that the word “arrogant” wouldn’t be one of his first 6,000 to describe Federer.
“It’s just unnecessary. I don’t know if we need to throw this around from the sidelines. I think it probably wouldn’t be one of my first 6,000 words that I would use to describe Roger,” said Roddick.
Djokovic has received criticism over the past few weeks for his stance against vaccines as well as for the ‘Self-Mastery Project’ he has been running on his Instagram page.
“I think there have been some stories coming out of that camp that are maybe concerning at best,” said Roddick. “And so on top of those was turning ‘poisonous drinking water in a glorious thing with our thoughts’. This is actually only the second or third most alarming thing that set out of that camp in the last couple of weeks.”
Roddick added: “It’s just hard cause when you disagree with someone’s stance on a personal level, you can still think that they’re really friendly and still enjoy seeing them. And that shouldn’t dictate your opinion on what they have accomplished on the court.
“So what I think of his stances on big world issues that are going on right now and what he has accomplished on sport are two completely separate things for me and Novak has been unbelievable. He is certainly has a real chance of being the best of all time regardless of if I have to disagree with him on any certain issue.”
