MELBOURNE, Australia—Novak Djokovic propped up his left shoe on a courtside sign so he could stretch out a hamstring that he acknowledged afterward concerns him. He grimaced while flexing the muscle after one point, hopped on his right leg to keep weight off the left after another. He took a medical timeout while a trainer re-taped him during the second set—which Djokovic would go on to drop.
As if he needed another distraction, Djokovic was flustered enough by a heckler that he asked chair umpire Fergus Murphy to have the spectator removed from Rod Laver Arena, telling the official: “The guy’s drunk out of his mind … He’s been provoking. He just wants to get in my head.”…