NOVAK DJOKOVIC’s wife has waded into the Naomi Osaka controversy at the Australian Open.
Osaka, 28, beat opponent Sorana Cirstea 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in the second round of the year’s first Grand Slam on Wednesday.
But the pair were involved in a dramatic confrontation at the end after a frosty handshake.
Djokovic’s wife Jelena is now the latest to offer thoughts on the incident after Osaka was deemed to have been making too much noise in between Cirstea’s serves.
Osaka explained afterwards that Cirstea wasn’t happy, saying: “Apparently a lot of ‘come-ons’ as that’s what she was angry about but whatever.”
The No16 seed frustrated her Romanian counterpart with audible ways of geeing herself up.
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Osaka added: “I mean, I tried to play well.
“I think I made a lot of unforced errors but I tried my best.
“She’s a great player. I think this was her last Australian Open, so, sorry she’s mad about it.”
Responding to a video of the pair talking at the net after the match, Jelena, 39, wrote on Instagram: “Hmm, I’m surprised that this is not being called hindrance.
“In between 2 serves, when crowds are applauding or shouting, the chair ump asks not to shout between serves as it is disturbing to the player.
“The point is not finished.
“Sorana missed her first serve and is focusing on getting in the second, it is a slight pause.
“And is is disrespectful to applaud at someone’s first serve mistake too.
“I am surprised that the chair / Naomi thought that was fair?!
“Were there any rule changes that I missed?!”
She then added in response to another comment: “There’s nothing wrong with pumping yourself up, and that’s not even the point of this comment, sorry I wasn’t clear enough.
“It is about when and how. She as a professional player would know that it is definitely NOT in between 1st and 2nd serve of your opponent.
“Unless you want to provoke. In this case, I don’t see why she is acting surprised at the end that Sorana got provoked.
“Naomi is being cheered on by her fans for pumping herself, great.
“I just didn’t see her ever doing this to another player so I thought it was a rule change or something.”
Osaka said afterwards that Cirstea “could have asked me” to stop.
Cirstea did not make an official complaint to the umpire about the conduct.
The world No41 played down the event, saying: “We just had a chat. Nothing big.
“Again, I don’t think that’s the main thing after tonight match.
“Again, it was a good match. She was much better than me towards the end.
“Yeah, she deserved the win. So that’s all I will say.
“Look, this is my last Australian Open. I have been playing for 20 years.
“It’s more than a five-second discussion at the end that I had with Naomi.
“This is my last Australian Open and so I think the moments are bigger to me than to talk about a five-second chat I had with Naomi at the end.
“There was no drama.
“It was just a five-second exchange between two players that have been on a tour for a long time. It stays between us.
“For me this was my last match at the Australian Open, so I think I’ll like to stay with that.”
Osaka later added: “For me, no one’s ever complained about it before.
“Also the umpire didn’t tell me I was wrong. The umpire said I was fine.
“That was kind of what I thought. I thought we moved past it.
“I’ve never been involved in something like this before, so I don’t know if we’re supposed to leave it on the court and be like: ‘Hey, how you doing?’
“I’m a little confused. I guess that emotions were very high for her.
“I also want to apologise. I think the first couple things that I said on the court was disrespectful.
“I don’t like disrespecting people. That’s not what I do.
“I mean, if she wants to talk about it, then yeah.
“But when I’m pumping myself up, in my head I’m not like: ‘Now I’m going to distract the other person.’ It’s purely for me.”
Osaka, a two-time Aussie Open winner and four-time Grand Slam champ, plays Maddison Inglis in the third round.
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