Novak Djokovic's wife and two former world leaders take Sorana Cîrstea's side in the conflict with Naomi Osaka: “It's disrespectful”

Thursday, January 22, Naomi Osaka beat Sorana Cîrstea 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in the second round of the Australian Open, at the end of a match that lasted almost two hours. During the game, the 35-year-old tennis player complained to the referee that her opponent kept shouting “Come on” between her serves.

Sorana Cîrstea and Naomi Osaka, tense discussion at the Australian Open: “You don't know what fair play is”

Nothing seemed wrong to the referee, but at the end of the game, after a cold handshake, Cîrstea reproached the Japanese woman for not knowing what fair play meansalthough she has been playing on the WTA circuit for a long time.

Visibly affected, Osaka spoke about this in the on-court interview, stating that Cîrstea is probably upset because she is in the last tournament of her career at the Australian Open. Then, at the press conference, the four-time Grand Slam winner apologized to Soranastating that he did not want to provoke her.

On the other side, the Romanian woman refused to answer the questions on this subjectstating that his two decades of work are more important than the 5-second chat he had with Osaka.

Jelena Djokovic, Novak's wife: “Are there rule changes we missed?”

However, the conflict between Cîrstea and Osaka spread quickly and reached most sports publications in the world. Even though he did not play tennis at a professional level, Jelena Djokovic, wife of Novak Djokovicone of the best tennis players in history, commented on this situation on Instagram.

“Hmm, I'm surprised there wasn't 'interference'. Between two serves, when the crowd cheers or shouts, the umpire asks them to stop because they are disturbing the player. The point is not finished. Sorana missed the first serve and was concentrating on the second, a short break.

Besides, it's disrespectful to applaud someone else's first serve mistake. I'm surprised the referee and Naomi thought it was fair. Are there rule changes that I missed?”, Jelena wrote.

She later added a comment in response to another user's reply:

“There's nothing wrong with encouraging yourself… It's about when and how [să o faci]. As a professional player, she should have known not to do that, certainly between the opponent's 1 and 2 serves. Only if you want to challenge. In that case, I don't know why she pretended to be surprised at the end that Sorana was challenged.

Naomi is congratulated by the fans for cheering herself up, great. I just haven't seen her do it with another player, so I thought the rule had changed or something.”

Naomi Osaka and Sorana Cirstea had some words at the net after their match at the Australian Open.

👀👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/pB1qyNoUAR

— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) January 22, 2026

Martina Navratilova: “You can't talk out loud between your opponent's first and second serve”

The conflict was also addressed on the Tennis Channel by Martina Navratilova and Lindsay Davenport, two former world leaderswho justified Cîrstea in relation to her opponent's gesture, even if they affirmed that Osaka did not do this out of malice.

I can understand what Naomi said after the match, that she was taken by the wave, by the tension of the moment and that she was surprised by Sorana Cîrstea's reaction at the net, but you can't talk out loud between the first and second serve of the opponent.

Cîrstea was preparing to serve and Osaka shouted “Come on!”. It is not correct. I don't think he did it specifically, I don't think he realized it. You can say “Come on!” as many times as you want, but in your head, don't verbalize it.

There was more talk about Naomi's outfit and this incident than about her tennis. Sometimes it's good to talk less

– Martina Navratilovaaccording to Eurosport

Osaka is 28 years old, she has been playing tennis for a long time. That's something you shouldn't normally do, you can't make noise between your opponent's serves. Cîrstea complained about it, Osaka did it in the opening round and nobody said anything.

We all know Osaka, she has no malice in her so I would have been surprised if she continued with that gesture. You can encourage yourself in other ways, but you can't shout between services. There are some basic tennis rules. I have a feeling it will stop here

– Lindsay Davenport

“You can't yell out in between serves.”

Full analysis of the Osaka-Cirstea argument ⤵️#AO26 pic.twitter.com/Vlaw9t4xze

— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) January 22, 2026