Andy Roddick stands by calling Novak Djokovic 'tennis' Yoko Ono' in context of Federer-Nadal rivalry: "Beatles fans needed someone to be mad at"

Andy Roddick has defended his decision to brand Novak Djokovic tennis' Yoko Ono after facing flak from the Serb's fans.

In a recent episode of the Served With Andy Roddick podcast, the 41-year-old likened Djokovic to Ono. According to Roddick, the Serb's disruption of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's dominance from the late 2000s made him a hated figure among the Swiss and Spaniard's respective fanbases.

The former World No. 1 went on to draw a parallel with Ono, who was somewhat disliked by Beatles fans after she became involved in a romantic relationship with the late John Lennon. Lennon quit the band in 1969, having married the Japanese artist earlier that year.

"He (Djokovic) is like tennis' Yoko (Ono). He is the one who we didn't want, didn't need. We had the rivalry, we had the lefty-righty. We had the contrasting styles," Andy Roddick said (at 1:15:43).

However, Roddick's opinion did not go down too well with Djokovic's fans. To explain his position, the former World No. 1 took to social media.

"Lots of rage from the fanbase of the person I'm complimenting hahaha Up is down, down is up. But anyways, Math doesn't care about feelings. His is the resume you'd take. No questions asked," Roddick wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

A user responded to Roddick saying that he should have known he would face backlash if he wanted to compare Djokovic with Ono. The 41-year-old replied to the user, writing:

"It was in the context of public perception, I think it's entirely comparable, Beatles fans needed someone to be mad at."

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When Andy Roddick said that Novak Djokovic's numbers make him the GOAT

Novak Djokovic (L) and Andy Roddick (R) at the 2024 US Open

Despite Novak Djokovic's haul of titles, which includes 24 Grand Slams, 40 Masters, and seven year-end finals, his critics often rate rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal higher. However, in November 2023, Roddick compared Djokovic's achievements with those of his rivals.

"With Novak, if you just put his numbers side by side; Slam totals, head-to-head record against most people on Earth, he has a positive head-to-head record against his two biggest rivals, has won the most Masters 1000s, he's adding weeks to the all-time number one list," Roddick said in an interview with Betway.

The American went on to say that irrespective of people's opinions, in his eyes, the numbers matter more.

"It's actually hard to make a statistical argument against Novak having the best resume ever at this point. And then the conversation eventually when someone's countering that comes into like stylistically, and I like this person, and this person carries themselves a certain way, I tend to lean into the numbers a little bit more," he added.