“Excuses, excuses.” That was Novak Djokovic’s line to Justin Bieber after the pop star, wrist still smarting, told a New York crowd that he was actually the better ping-pong player of the two.
Djokovic had just beaten him in front of hundreds at Fanatics Fest, and he was not letting it go.
“I’m the superior ping pong player, but he got me today. I got to give him his flowers,” Bieber told the room.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion cut him off.
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“This is my game and my arena. I own racket sports,” he added, milking the moment for a viral clip that ricocheted around social media for the rest of the weekend.
The table tennis stunt was one act in a four-day New York run at the Jacob Javits Center from 16 to 19 July, and it was not even the strangest.
A WWE walkout, complete with mask
On 18 July, Djokovic stepped onto a proper WWE-style entrance ramp built inside the Javits Center wearing a mask inspired by luchador Penta, with Jacob Fatu’s entrance music thumping through the speakers.
He worked the crowd, threw high fives and finished the routine with a Roman Reigns-style pose before pulling the mask off. Fanatics, which is WWE’s official merchandise partner, had brought the full lighting rig with them.
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He then hit three consecutive three-pointers on a basketball setup, scored 590 on a UFC punching machine and, later in the week, premiered a Prime Video documentary at the Museum of Modern Art and turned up ringside at WWE’s Saturday Night’s Main Event at Madison Square Garden.
Somewhere in between, he lowered himself into an ice bath opposite Kevin Hart for a Cold as Balls interview.
Hart’s series was filming its next batch of episodes live at Fanatics Fest, with the show heading to Netflix later this summer.
The tennis silence around all of this
The contrast with his actual day job is where the week gets genuinely interesting.
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Djokovic reached the Wimbledon semi-final in early July before losing to Jannik Sinner.
A fortnight later, on 24 July, Tennis Canada confirmed he would not play the National Bank Open in Montreal, a tournament he has now skipped more often than any other on the calendar over the last decade.
“We are obviously very disappointed that Jannik and Novak won’t be joining us in Montréal this year,” tournament director Valérie Tétreault said.
He has not spoken publicly about the withdrawal. He has not spoken publicly about much on the tennis front at all.
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What he has said, back in early July, is that the finish line is visible.
His stated goal is to “retire at the 2028 Olympic Games with the Serbian flag in my hands,” and he framed the Wimbledon run in the language of a man clinging to specific moments rather than a season.
“These are the kind of moments that I still play [tennis] for. I’m still able to battle these young guys,” he told reporters after the quarter-final.
Cincinnati and the US Open are next on his own tennis calendar. On the evidence of Fanatics Fest, the entertainer is beating the tennis player to the microphone.
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