Novak Djokovic plays cruel prank on ‘terrified’ Wimbledon ball girl on Centre Court | Tennis | Sport

Novak Djokovic cruelly taunted a ball girl and pretended that she had hurt him during his clash with Stefanos Tsitsipas on Centre Court on Wednesday night. The Serbian had just secured the second set to lead 2-0 when he asked the young girl for some help with cutting the taping on his shoulder.

Djokovic handed his new apprentice a set of scissors to trim the tape. And as she began to snip away, the 24-time Grand Slam champion pretended that he had been cut.

The terrified youngster had a face of horror as the seven-time Wimbledon champion winced. But he quickly burst into laugher as the girl put her hand on her chest.

Watching on the BBC‘s coverage, presenter Clare Balding said: “He’s going to get help from one of the ball girls.

“Oh that’s funny. He’s joking. He’s joking. Oh you’re so funny! Poor girl, she was absolutely terrified there.

“Needle work is complete, Tsitsipas has gone off court for a bathroom break and Djokovic will be hoping very much he can wrap this up in double quick time.”

Djokovic apologised for the incident during his on-court interview after the match. He said: “Stefanos went to change so I had some spare time. I’m sorry if I scared her.”

Djokovic raced into a 6-3 first-set lead under the roof on Centre Court against a tricky opponent who has slipped from No.3 to No.87 in the world rankings.

He broke for a 3-1 lead and then came back from 0-40 down on serve to wrap up the set in just 26 minutes.

The second didn’t prove any more difficult for the seven-time Wimbledon champion and he was two sets up in 63 minutes.

And he continued that form in the third set to romp to a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Djokovic will face No. 25 seed Arthur Rinderknech in round three on Friday.