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Line judge taken out by Djokovic ball cops vile online abuse, death threats

September 8, 2020

The line judge struck in the throat by a ball hit by Novak Djokovic at the US Open has been subjected to vile abuse online.

The woman has been sent death threats, labelled an alcoholic, told she exaggerated her injury and has even received cruel comments about the death of her son.

Top seed Djokovic was disqualified from the US Open yesterday after accidentally hitting line judge Laura Clark with a stray tennis ball.

Clark fell to the ground clutching her throat after being hit.

People purporting to be fans of Djokovic have taken to social media with sickening posts about Clark.

Clark's son died in 2008, and one of person wrote "don't worry, you'll join him soon" in a threatening Instagram comment, according to the Daily Mail.

Other criticisms included false accusations she dramatised how hurt she was from the ball. She was also labelled a "tennis Karen".

Djokovic checked on Clark right after she went down and released a statement later publicly apologising, saying he was "sad and empty" .

"I checked on the lines person and the tournament told me that thank God she is feeling ok. I'm extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. So unintended. So wrong."

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