Novak Djokovic was booed after retiring injured at his latest tournament.

Novak Djokovic was booed off the court after retiring injured in Australia (Image: Getty)

Tim Henman has had his say after Novak Djokovic was booed off the court when he retired from his Australian Open semi-final.

While Henman believes the crowd’s response was unacceptable, he says the world No. 6 has been attracting “chaos”.

The retired British player also has a theory that Djokovic craves the affection shown to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Djokovic’s Australian Open campaign ended in disappointment as he was forced to retire injured after losing the first set of his semi-final match against Alexander Zverev.
The 37-year-old struggled with a hamstring problem during his quarter-final against Carlos Alcaraz and received an off-court medical timeout, but he won and advanced to the last four. He later said he was “concerned.”

Djokovic toughed it out for a tight 81-minute set against Zverev before forfeiting the match. He waved goodbye to the Rod Laver Arena crowd, but some booed as he walked off the court.

Henman has now slammed the fans’ behaviour as “indefensible”. However, he believes some of Djokovic’s actions can attract the wrong attention.

“I think they got it totally wrong,” he said of the crowd.

Novak Djokovic picked up a hamstring injury (Image: Getty)

“For someone that, he’s going for his 11th Australian Open title, 25th Slam to be the leader in history, to pull out after a set, he’s obviously in a bad way, and so for him to be booed in that moment, I think is pretty indefensible.

“However, I’m not on social media, as you know, but what I hear goes on with him and his fans and, you know, it’s chaos, isn’t it?

“And there have been times that he’s probably attracted that. But yeah, I think chaos is quite a good word.”

Henman also gets the impression that Djokovic is hoping to get the same support that his old rivals, Federer and Nadal, received.

He continued: “I mean, god, he absolutely doesn’t deserve to be booed off the court, does he? In the semis of a Slam when he’s had to retire.

“I think, again, you dig a bit deeper, in my opinion, he’s always craved the affection that has been shown to Federer and Nadal.

“Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, that’s my opinion. Some people I guess don’t like that, behaves in that way.”

However, Henman isn’t interested in the outside noise. “That whole sort of thing is not really my scene,” he explained.

“I look at what he’s achieved in the game and you look at virtually every stat, he’s the best in the men’s game.

“So I find it difficult to debate that now when he’s got 24 Slams and he’s got the most weeks at No. 1, he’s got the most Masters 1000s, whatever it is, he’s phenomenal.”