Novak Djokovic to apologise to ball girl he ‘reduced to tears’

The number one seed was forced to extend his match against big-serving South African Anderson into a second day after light stopped play on Monday.

Djokovic lost the first two sets to Anderson but displayed steely grit to fight back and level the match amid the fading light on Court One.

And though the defending champion soon took control of the tie on its resumption, Djokovic was still obviously frustrated out on the grass and at one point took it out on one of the ball girls.

He could be seen aggressively shouting ‘towel’ at the startled youngster during a game in which he failed to deal with Anderson’s lightning-quick serves.

His outbursts left the ball girl "visibly shaken and in tears". A spectator told the Daily Mail that, "He was only two or three feet away, it was full on, I was quite shocked. She had to stay on court afterwards. She was trembling."

Following his 6-7(6) 6-7(6) 6-1 6-4 7-5 victory, the Serb was asked about the incident involving the ball girl.

He said: “I'm sorry. There was nothing towards her.

“Maybe she was just afraid of my screaming there. I was pretty close to her. I'm definitely going to try to apologise to her if I did something wrong.”