WATCH: Novak Djokovic sarcastically applauds crowd, urges them to ‘boo more’ before going into beast mode

Shahida Jacobs
Novak Djokovic pleased with himself
Serbia's Novak Djokovic reacts after he won the men's single match

Novak Djokovic has once again done what he does best: produced the goods when he is up against it and with the crowd on his back as he bounced back to defeat Tallon Griekspoor at the Paris Masters.

Playing in only his second ATP match since winning the US Open, Djokovic looked sluggish and struggled with a stomach problem during the third-round clash against the world No 23 at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

After racing into a 3-0 lead in the opening set, the 24-time Grand Slam winner’s momentum was halted as Griekspoor broke back in game seven and stunningly claimed a second break in game nine before serving out the first set.

Djokovic then had to save five break points in the second set while the Dutchman only faced one break point on his own serve. It eventually went to the tie-breaker and Djokovic claimed two early mini breaks to take the match to a decider.

The third set was a humdinger as the world No 1 broke first in game five, but Griekspoor was not going down without a fight as he broke in game eight after Djokovic served a double fault.

And that’s when it all kicked off in Paris-Bercy as the crowd got on the tennis great’s back as they applauded the double fault, but every tennis fan should know by now that you boo Novak Djokovic at your own peril.

Djokovic sarcastically applauded the fans during the changeover and told them “boo more, boo more” several times.

He then went into beast mode as he broke to love and then held his own serve – also to love – to wrap up the match without dropping another point.

And afterwards, he took another swipe at the Parisian crowd.

“They’re doing me a favour. The more they cheer against me, the better for me. They wake something in me that they perhaps don’t want to see, winner.”

The Serbian has now won 15 consecutive matches on the ATP Tour with his last defeat coming in the Wimbledon final against Carlos Alcaraz. He also strengthened his grip on the year-end No 1 ranking as he leads Alcaraz by 670 points.

Next up for Djokovic is a replay of the 2022 Paris Masters final as he will take on defending champion Holger Rune in the quarter-final.

Rune had a relatively stress-free Thursday evening as the Dane defeated Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 6-3.

The winner of the Djokovic-Rune clash will take on either Andrey Rublev or Alex de Minaur for a place in the final.