Iga Swiatek has added her name to the history books. On her journey of winning two consecutive clay court titles in both Madrid and Rome, the tennis star added her name to a list with the likes of Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal. While her feat was to be appreciated by fans all across the globe, a mistake by the WTA’s official account turned the attention to a different matter.

Recently, the WTA’s official X account posted an update that announced the massive feat conquered by Iga Swiatek. However, besides fulfilling its core target just to be an informative post, it somehow hurt the emotions of Novak Djokovic fans. According to the post, Iga Swiatek was mentioned as the fourth player to win titles in Madrid and Rome consecutively, including Serena, Dinara Safina, and Rafael Nadal. To the fans who already keep track of the records, it turned out to be a misleading post as the Serbian has also conquered the feat.

As soon as the online tennis community spotted the absence of Nole in the post, the WTA’s account reposted the picture after removing Rafa’s image as well, keeping it strictly limited to WTA players. The fans, who were expecting the addition of Djokovic’s image instead of the subtraction of Nadal, came forward to lash out at the authorities.

Djokovic has no doubt a somewhat controversial presence. One, pressing on the fact that the authorities always tend to do similar things with the Serb, wrote, “They removed Nadal, because they needed to include Djokovic,” along with regarding this as a “Standard practice.”

Another shared a similar sentiment, that the Spaniard might be beloved but the Serbinator is more hated. “They couldn’t add Novak so removed Nadal! 🤣🤣,” wrote another fan, mentioning the fact that they already saw this coming.

“Basically the tweet looked like this, but since they forgot Djoko and it hurt their a** to put it they preferred to remove Nadal too,” a fan wrote, highlighting the authority’s mistake even after they made amends. The X post shows the original image with the wrong stats and the new one just calls Swiatek the ‘third’ woman to win the Madrid and Italian Open titles back to back.

A fan, regarding the situation as “disgusting”, mentioned the fact that the WTA, “removed Nadal. avoid praising Novak at all costs.” Given his slightly acerbic nature and tendency to call out crowds, the criticism of Djokovic is understandable. But that doesn’t mean his fans are going to stand for it.

“Anything not to credit Novak lmao,” wrote a fan, assuming that the authorities always do this to Novak Djokovic. He may be World No. 1 where tennis is concerned but still comes in last in some people’s books. 

As the issue escalated, it was evident that fans had now gained a perception that the authorities did not support Djokovic or his feats.

Tennis Channel subtly defames Novak Djokovic as Italian fans embrace him

This wasn’t the first time when Novak Djokovic was slandered on social media by tennis authorities. Back when the Serbinator made a grand entry in Rome, everyone expected that the social media channels would reflect the same.

However, despite the fact that the Italian crowd seemed to love the Serb, the Tennis Channel portrayed his appearance in such a way that it seemed to be dissatisfactory for the fans. “Security guard in the mud,” the caption said, pointing to the fact that the security personnel had to go through a tough time keeping the crowd off the Serb. And many did not like this display.

As the social media channels continue to defame Novak Djokovic out of candid topics, the fans stand firm to defend the image of their favorite tennis star.