This unfortunate gesture is punishable, so you have to apply the rules as for everyone. It's a shame for him, in any case, many of his opponents must be relieved not to have to meet him in the rest of the tournament.
Totally agree. The rules are the rules.
Regardless of the force of the blow and the actions of the referee, the player is punished by disqualification. This is written in the rules and there is nothing about the force of the blow. There are two points, unintentional and intentional action. The second punishment is much stricter, up to a year's disqualification.
Absolutely agree. He could have hit her on the big toe and it would have been a violation of the rules. But the umpire still has a certain amount of discretion as to the punishment. If she shakes her foot out and gives a thumbs up that she is okay, Novak might get away with being given a code violation, or have been penalized a game. But if the linesperson breaks down sobbing and limps off the court like her foot is broken, it kind of ties the umpires
hands.
And I'm not saying Djokovic wasn't wrong. I personally believe he should have been defaulted even if the linesperson hadn't reacted the way she did. That's my opinion. But it didn't seem as though the umpire really wanted to default him. He seemed a little hesitant to make that call. But what I think is that the linesperson may have had her own opinion as to the appropriateness of Novak's behavior and may have believed that he deserved to defaulted. And perhaps her performance was less about an actual injury and more about seeing that Djokovic got what he deserved for his behavior.
This was the very case when there was no one to blame but himself.
But in youth tournaments, Novak was unrestrained but only now it hurt him. I have not seen him at children's tournaments and therefore I can not say anything about the early period.
This is neither the first nor the last such incident in tennis. It's a sport.��
Again, I agree. There was reference made to the ball that Djoko had whacked earlier in the tournament that he had hit much harder, but that didn't come close to hitting anyone. I believe that too should have been a code violation. Of course it wasn't serious enough for him to be defaulted. Maybe he should have received a stern warning and been put on notice. Perhaps then the incident with the line judge wouldn't have happened.