Roger Federer sat in Novak Djokovic's seat

[Achilles82]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon...chair/1700519/

Traditionally, the bench to the left of the chair umpire is reserved for the higher-ranked player in a tennis match. In the case of the year-end match at the ATP World Tour Finals between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, the honor should have gone to Djokovic, the world No. 1.

But Federer entered the O2 Arena first for Monday's final and took the chair for himself. It's a familiar seat -- no man in history has spent more weeks at No. 1 than Federer -- but one that wasn't supposed to be his on Monday evening.

As noted by a number of tennis observers on Twitter, Djokovic appeared to notice the faux pas when he entered and seemed annoyed. He went on to lose the first nine points of the match en route to a quick 0-3 deficit. That's not saying there's any causation, mind you. Yet players, even ones with as much talent as Djokovic, have been thrown off by less.

He would rally to win the first set, 7-6.

Did Federer sit in the seat on purpose, to send a message? Was it a mistake? Does Federer always assume he's the top-ranked player in the room? I bet if Federer met the president and someone in the room said, "Mr. President, there's an urgent call for you," Federer would dig his phone out of his pocket to see who was ringing him.

It was probably a harmless accident or maybe they broke with tradition on purpose and we're all reading too much into Djokovic's reaction. For what it's worth, Federer and Djokovic both sat in the proper seats during Sunday's semifinal wins.

Don't know what to think of this.

[tennis_pro]

How arrogant of Federer to take the wrong seat.

[RF20Lennon]

Lol it's probably just a small tradition I highly doubt it was gamesmanship but you never know

[pvaudio]

This wasn't interesting yesterday when people were talking about it either.

[6-1 6-3 6-0]

Typical, arrogant behaviour from Federer.

[Goosehead]

lol..could be an accident by fed or deliberate as if to say..'hey djoko im the no1 302 weeks baby'

is it deviousfed or genuinemistakefed ?? who knows

on youtube, i was looking at a while back at wimby 88 final (i think not 89 or 90)..they were walking on to centre court and boris sat down first in edbergs chair steffan defo didnt like it but didnt say anything, but i think knowing becker that it was a deliberate move..sadly for me and him it didnt help as becker lost the final.

[Mustard]

LOL. Funny stuff. Old habits die hard.

[Prisoner of Birth]

LOL, Federer shows who's boss. How arrogantly arrogant.

[BHud]

How beautifully arrogant! Love it...*^%# PC!

[Tony48]

Before people say he didn't....WATCH THE REPLAY

The seat Federer sat in had Djokovic's towel draped across it (with the name NOVAK DJOKOVIC printed on it, clear as day). Now instead of going to the seat that had HIS towel, he chose to disrespect Djokovic and intentionally took his bench.

When Djokovic entered the arena, his towel had been moved to Federer's bench.

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by Goosehead

lol..could be an accident by fed or deliberate as if to say..'hey djoko im the no1 302 weeks baby'

is it deviousfed or genuinemistakefed ?? who knows

on youtube, i was looking at a while back at wimby 88 final (i think not 89 or 90)..they were walking on to centre court and boris sat down first in edbergs chair steffan defo didnt like it but didnt say anything, but i think knowing becker that it was a deliberate move..sadly for me and him it didnt help as becker lost the final.

I can confirm that it was 1988. It was the other way round, wasn't it? There were many rain delays, most of the match being played on the third Monday. On one of the walks back onto court, Edberg was eager to get to the chair, and forgot to bow to the Royal box (which was a "tradition" at Wimbledon up to 2002 for all matches on centre court), so Becker called Edberg back. After they bowed to the Royal box, Edberg got the wrong chair as well. Edberg won the match, though, by 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-2.

[zagor]

A dick move from Fed if true but also quite hilarious at the same time, I don't mind some sparks between players, it makes for more entertaining matches (for me), maybe it motivated Novak more LOL.

In before, if Rafa did this there would be 100 threads on it, this thread would have 1000 pages bla bla bla

[Ms Nadal]

Originally Posted by zagor

A dick move from Fed if true but also hilarious at the same time, I don't mind some sparks between players, it makes for more entertaining matches (for me).

In before, if Rafa did this there would be 100 threads on it, this thread would have 1000 pages bla bla bla

Exactly, Rafa always gets picked on

[Sartorius]

Traditionally, the bench to the left of the chair umpire is reserved for the higher-ranked player in a tennis match.

Say what?

Can someone confirm this? I feel one can point to a ton of matches where this wasn't applied.

[zagor]

Originally Posted by Ms Nadal

Exactly, Rafa always gets picked on

I know, it makes me sad inside.

[McEnroeisanartist]

The All Time Greatest Tennis Player of All Time, who is also its All Time Great Ambassador can sit where ever the hell he wants to.

[Sartorius]

Not the first time he sat in the wrong chair! The scoundrel!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...A0abru4#t=124s


Jeez, this is hilarious.

[Achilles82]

Originally Posted by Tony48

Before people say he didn't....WATCH THE REPLAY

The seat Federer sat in had Djokovic's towel draped across it (with the name NOVAK DJOKOVIC printed on it, clear as day). Now instead of going to the seat that had HIS towel, he chose to disrespect Djokovic and intentionally took his bench.

When Djokovic entered the arena, his towel had been moved to Federer's bench.

You're right. I just checked it on youtube. Here's the screenshot...

In Federer's defense, on back of the chair it does say "FedEx" so...

[dimeaxe]

I don't see anything bad in this move, he just wants to be NO.1VAK

[namelessone]

I find this more funny than anything.