While good form hasn’t been on the side of Novak Djokovic, the Serb’s season hasn’t been short on controversies either. Arguments with umpires and visible acts of frustration have become a common feature of him lately. Recently, another such controversial incident occurred at the Italian Open to which American tennis legend, Jimmy Connors, reacted by sharing an example from his own playing days.

In the second round of the ATP Masters tournament in Rome, a metal water bottle accidentally hit Djokovic’s head while he was signing autographs after his win. Originally assumed to be a deliberate act, videos of the incident showed that the bottle flew out of a fan’s backpack who was leaving too far over the railing. While the Serb appeared to be in pain initially as he crouched with his head down, Djokovic later took to social media to express that he was fine. However, the incident became a talking point in the tennis fraternity and Connors also joined the bandwagon.

Brett Connors asked his father on the Advantage Connors podcast to comment on Djokovic’s water bottle incident in Rome. Further, he also recounted if any similar incident occurred during his playing days. Connors revealed, “Oh no, I’ve never had anybody heckle me, son,” laughing. “When they threw it, it was always pennies. But if you’re gonna throw me something, throw something worth it, at least. That seemed to be a crazy thing that happened there. From what I understand, it hit him in the head, right?”

While Djokovic won that match against Corentin Moutet, he went on to lose his third-round clash against Alejandro Tabilo in Rome. Subsequently, he went on to reveal if the controversial bottle incident had any impact on his performance.

Was the bottle incident the reason behind the loss of Novak Djokovic in Rome?

The World Number 1 struggled throughout his match against Tabilo and succumbed to a shocking loss in straight sets 6-2, 6-3. During the post-match interview, he went on to reveal if he was still suffering from the water bottle incident.

The Serbian mentioned, “I don’t know, to be honest. I have to check that. Training was different. I was going for kind of easy training yesterday. I didn’t feel anything, but I also didn’t feel the same.”

Further, Djokovic went on to add, “Today under high stress, it was quite bad – not in terms of pain, but in terms of this balance. Just no coordination. Completely different player from what it was two nights ago. Could be. I don’t know. I have to do medical checkups and see what’s going on.”

The 24-time Grand Slam champion, who is yet to win a title this year, will play in this week’s Geneva Open ahead of Roland Garros. He will face Yannick Hanfmann in the round of 16 clash tomorrow.