Novak Djokovic's Wife Jelena Under Fire for Australian Open Comments

Tennis star Novak Djokovic advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2026 Australian Open after Jakub Mensik withdrew due to injury. Djokovic, with an extra 48 hours of rest, will face Lorenzo Musetti on January 27.

Musetti is fresh off defeating Taylor Fritz in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 in the fourth round. Djokovic most recently defeated Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp in straight sets in the third round. The 24-time champion is looking to win his 11th Australian Open title this year.

Cheering Djokovic on at Melbourne Park, his wife, Jelena Djokovic. The couple first met as teenagers and married in July 2014. They share two children together, Stefan and Tara.

Jelena is the co-founder and global CEO of the Novak Djokovic Foundation. While she usually remains focused on Djokovic’s matches during tournaments, she had a lot to say following the controversial dispute over Naomi Osaka’s defeat to Romania’s Sorana Cirstea last week.

Jelena Djokovic Faced Critcism for Her Comments Against 4-Time Grand Slam Champion Naomi Osaka

Video of Osaka and Cirstea exchanging words after their match caught Jelena’s attention on Instagram. Cirstea accused Osaka of distracting her between serves. She didn’t like Osaka yelling, “C’mon,” to hype herself up.

While officials reviewed the situation and deemed that the four-time Grand Slam champ did not violate any rules, Djokovic’s wife appeared to disagree.

“Hmm, I’m surprised that this is not being called hindrance,” Jelena wrote on TNT Sports’ Instagram video. “In between 2 serves, when crowds are applauding or shouting, the chair ump asks not to shout between serves as it is disturbing to the player.

“The point is not finished. Sorana missed her first serve and is focusing on getting in the second, it is a slight pause. And it is disrespectful to applaud at someone’s first serve mistake too. I am surprised that the chair / Naomi thought that was fair?! Were there any rule changes that I missed?!”

Jelena received over 135 replies in the comments, the bulk of them defending Osaka. One person wrote, “Stop it — that’s a whole bunch of words saying nothing slap.” Another Instagram user added, “Cry about it in the car. She couldn’t beat Naomi on any level so her saying c’mon between serves had nothing to do with her losing.”

Following the backlash, Jelena added another comment. “There’s nothing wrong with pumping yourself up, and that’s not even the point of this comment, sorry I wasn’t clear enough,” she wrote. “It is about when and how. She as a professional player would know that it is definitely NOT in between 1st and 2nd serve of your opponent.

“Unless you want to provoke. In this case, I don’t see why she is acting surprised at the end that Sorana got provoked. Naomi is being cheered on by her fans for pumping herself, great. I just didn’t see her ever doing this to another player so I thought it was a rule change or something.”

Novak Djokovic Describes Wife Jelena as His ‘Rock’

During an appearance on the Jay Shetty Podcast ahead of the 2025 U.S. Open, the 38-year-old made it clear he’s still madly in love with Jelena.

“She’s my rock,” the Olympic gold medalist said. “She’s someone that has seen the worst and the best sides of me. She has seen my evolution. She has challenged me on every level. We have grown together, and we have two beautiful children, and we still keep on growing and evolving.”

“We have challenges as every couple, but we have an amazing base and foundation. When we have challenging times in the relationship, we revert to that… the future that we see is the future that we see together.”

“She’s probably the only one in my life, other than my brothers or my one or two friends, that is able to tell me the things that I maybe don’t want to hear. Challenge my ideas, thoughts, and decisions.

“She has been an incredible partner in this whole journey, professionally, privately, emotionally, romantically, as a parent as well,” he continued. “So I still play at this level because also of the support that she’s giving to our family back home. And I remind myself of that a lot.”

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