World No. 1 Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the US Open 2020 after he accidentally hit a line judge with the tennis ball in a fit of anger at the Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday. The incident happened in the fourth round of the men’s singles match after the Serbian went 5-6 down against Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta in the first set.

According to an AFP report, the ball struck her in the throat and she could be heard gasping.

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Djokovic rushed over to check if she was okay and after a few minutes, she got up and walked off the court.

After the incident, Djokovic had a discussion with the tournament referee for about 10 minutes, following which the match umpire declared that Carreno Busta had won by default.

The Serbian is only the third player in Grand Slam history to be disqualified out of a men’s singles tournament following John McEnroe at the Australian Open in 1990 and Stefan Koubek at the French Open in 2000.

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Djokovic had been chasing an 18th Grand Slam title at the Billie Jean King US National Tennis Center.

He was hoping to close the gap on Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, both absent from the tournament, in the race for the all-time men’s Slam singles title record.

Djokovic is on 17, with Nadal on 19 and Federer on 20.