"What vile mindset produces such behavior?" - Tennis fans furious as Novak Djokovic's comments about Rafael Nadal's French Open absence get distorted

A veteran tennis journalist recently faced the wrath of tennis fans for his distorted take on Novak Djokovic's comments on Rafael Nadal's absence in the French Open 2023.

Nadal's withdrawal from the French Open led to lots of comments from the tennis world, including from Novak Djokovic. The Serbian initially joked about the Spaniard's absence and eventually highlighted his legacy at Roland Garros.

"Well, honestly, I don't miss him being in the draw, you know (smiling). You know, I don't like seeing him in the draw of Roland Garros, to be honest, you know. He's definitely one of the guys that not only has made history in terms of his records in this tournament overall, but just he won the hearts of many tennis fans around the world," he said.

However, renowned tennis journalist Peter Bodo recently authored an article about the various players commenting on Nadal's absence from the Paris Major. However, while uploading on social media, the site, Tennis.com, mentioned the Serbian player's joke without the proper context.

It seemed like an attempt at 'click-baiting', something that is common to the cyber world. However, coming from a reputed journalist and a leading website, it rubbed the fans the wrong way.

Soon after this, tennis fans on Twitter expressed their anger at this style of writing and criticized the journalist for trying to malign the World No. 3.

Some fans on Twitter called out the journalist for falsely showing the Serbian legend in a bad light.

"Complete distortion of what Novak actually said (that part was a joke) Peter Bodo must be dim or a very bad journalist!!!"

Many other tennis fans expressed their disappointment at the distortion of Djokovic's comments.

"Taking a comment by Novak out of context, again. Shameless."

Some fans even claimed that the media always tries to defame the 22-time Grand Slam winner by promoting an agenda against him.

"Yet another article feeding into the very obvious anti-Djokovic agenda in the legacy media. Anyone who sees in Djokovic's remarks anything other than acknowledgement of Nadal's stratospheric records at RG has lost the plot."

Here are other examples of fans visibly expressing their frustration and anger.

"Whoever wrote this should rot in hell."

"Djokovic literally said that Nadal’s absence from this year’s RG is a big loss for tennis but no - your leading hatemonger just had to take a side joke and turn it into yet another crusade and lynch campaign. Seriously, what kind of a vile mindset produces such behavior?"

"Also Djokovic: “it’s a big loss for the tournament and a big loss for tennis” But that wouldn’t be as fun, would it? Your narrative is so crystal clear it’s actually see-through."

Below are a few more fan reactions:

Novak Djokovic will take on Marton Fucsovics in 2R of the French Open

2023 French Open - Day Two

Novak Djokovic kicked off his French Open campaign with a convincing straight-set win over Aleksandar Kovacevic in the first round of the campaign. The third seed beat the American, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(1).

The 22-time Grand Slam winner will lock horns with Marton Fucsovics in the second round of the tournament. The duo have faced each other four times on tour with the former World No. 1 winning all four. They last met at the 2021 Paris Masters where the Serbian legend beat the Hungarian, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Fucsovics earlier beat Hugo Grenier, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 in the first round to set up a clash with the two-time French Open winner.