A young fan’s fantasy almost came true as she reached out to catch the Australian Open winner, Novak Djokovic’s sweaty shirt but was swiped away by a seemingly greedy woman in the crowd.
It was the 100th Australian Open, and the longest with Novak Djokovic beating out Rafael Nadal to win the title this weekend in one of the most exciting matches.
At the close of the game, Djokovic ripped of his shirt in celebration and ran around the court before heading back to the bench. As he packed up his belongings, the crowd cheered and in good spirit, he walked over to a young girl in the stands and tossed his game shirt to her.
The shirt was intercepted by an older woman in the crowd, who snatched it before the young girl could get her hands on it. The young girl looked on as the woman clutched the shirt that was aimed at her.
Unfortunately, Djokovic happened to turn around in time to miss the cruel interception, probably distracted by his long match and ultimate win—He took home a whopping $2.3 million check for the win.
Djokovic won the title Monday in Australia during the longest Grand Slam single final in the event’s history, according to the Associated Press, winning 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-5 after 5 hours and 53 minutes.
It was the tennis star’s third Australian Open win and fifth major overall.
As we previously reported, the Spaniard didn’t give up easy, taking the first-set 7-5 in an 80-minute battle. Nadal surrendered to Djokovic during the second, a 66-minute set and equally drawn out third set. It looked like things would turn around when Djokovic slipped to Nadal, who came back in for the fourth set 7-6 but the comeback was short-lived as Djokovic took the title in the fifth and final set, taking Nadal 7-5 at 1:37 a.m. local time.
The tennis crowd is known to be one of the most polite, with not so much as a whisper being heard in the audience during matches, so it’s surprising to see this kind of behavior.
The video of the shirt-snatching has made its way to YouTube and has been making its rounds with over 58,000 having viewed it since the video was posted Monday.
Check it out.
