“Painful when someone with a large following spreads misleading news” – Djokovic fans hit out at journalist for misreporting Ugo Humbert’s injury

Novak Djokovic’s fans have not taken kindly to tennis journalist Jose Morgado misrepresenting Ugo Humbert’s injury.

At the 2023 Open Sud de France in Montpellier, Ugo Humbert suffered a nasty fall while chasing one of Alejandro Davidovic Fokina’s powerful shots at 3-1 in the second-set tiebreak. Humbert made a misstep and tumbled to the ground; he was in obvious pain soon after, and couldn’t stand up immediately.

Humbert later shared an injury update with his fans on social media. He wrote that he had suffered a muscle tear in addition to a hematoma, and would need to take a few weeks off to recover.

“Little post to give you some news. The exams revealed a muscle tear of about 3cm due to the shock of the fall in addition to a nice hematoma! A few weeks off are needed. I can’t wait to get back on the court,” the Frenchaman wrote.

Tennis journalist Jose Morgado shared the news on Twitter soon after, but erroneously stated that Humbert had suffered a muscle tear to his hamstring.

“Ugo Humbert to miss ‘several weeks’ with a 3cm hamstrings tear. He looked like finally finding his tennis again…,” Morgado wrote on Twitter.

Novak Djokovic famously suffered a 3cm tear in his hamstring during the 2023 Australian Open, and was forced to defend himself against claims that he was faking the injury. Djokovic’s fans saw the journalist’s misrepresentation of Humbert’s injury as an affront to the Serb.

One fan said that they did not like it when anybody misled their large audience with exaggerated claims.

“You are right. I’m a bit rusty with my French and hadn’t read Humbert’s post carefully. It is actually a bit of exaggerated news and honestly I find it painful when someone with a large following spreads misleading news, whoever the player involved is,” a fan chimed in.

Another fan corrected Morgado and informed him that Humbert never mentioned hamstring in his statement.

“Excuse me José but Ugo doesn’t mention “hamstring” at all. At all,” the fan wrote.

Here are some more reactions:

The incident comes on the heels of Djokovic fans sending death threats to Arina Rodionova after she seemingly poked fun at the Serb’s injury.

Former player Paul McNamee rubbishes claims of Novak Djokovic faking his injury

Former former doubles World No. 1 Paul McNamee has defended Novak Djokovic against tennis fans claiming that he faked his injury at the Australian Open.

McNamee shared his thoughts on Twitter and said that it was obvious that the 22-time Grand Slam champion was carrying an injury. McNamee believes that Djokovic was able to overcome the issue because he is the best player in the world.

“For the record, I’ve never seen Djokovic move that badly, or go for so many winners… it’s a no brainer he was carrying an injury, but he was dedicated enough and good enough to overcome it. How? By being the best player right now by a good margin,” McNamee tweeted.

Novak Djokovic will return to the court at the ATP 500 Dubai Open, which is scheduled to begin on February 27. The Serb has also sought an exemption from the US authorities to be allowed to participate in the Sunshine Double in March.