BREAKING NEWS:Novak Djokovic drops to ground after being hit by ..

Novak Djokovic dropped to the ground at the World Tennis League on Friday as he was caught in the cross-fire during the mixed doubles while cheering on his Hawks team-mates Grigor Dimitrov and Paula Badosa. With the Kites’ Holger Rune and Sania Mirza in the lead, Mirza hit a ball which accidentally struck the world No 5 in the leg and he pretended to collapse in dramatic fashion.

Djokovic is back on the team Falcons bench for the first time since he pulled out of Wednesday’s singles match against team Hawks’ Nick Kyrgios at the last minute as he didn’t “feel 100 per cent”. And the Serb found himself in trouble as he returned to centre court to cheer on his team-mates when he was struck by a ball coming from doubles icon Mirza’s racket while Badosa and Dimitrov were serving at 0-3 down.

BREAKING NEWS:Novak Djokovic drops to ground after being hit by ..

The 35-year-old had his legs stretched out as he relaxed and watched the match but they ended up right in the firing line, and Djokovic made light of the moment as he hilariously dropped to the floor and pretended to collapse while his teammates rushed over and pretended to revive him. Former doubles No 1 Mirza also ran over to apologise and they laughed it off.

It ended up being a good game for the Falcons as they saved two break points to hold and get on the board for the first time. But it was eventually even worse news for Djokovic’s team as they lost the first game 6-2 and found themselves eliminated from contention for Saturday’s final as it is now guaranteed that they cannot make up enough points on the other three teams at the event.

READ MORE:Novak Djokovic: I admire Lionel Messi and respect him a lot and..

The World Tennis League exhibition uses a never-before-seen format where every game one is worth one point, and the winner of each tie is the team that accumulates the most points. There is also one extra point for every match won and five extra points for every one-day tie won, and the Falcons are bottom of the leaderboard behind today’s rivals the Kites, as well as the Hawks and Eagles who played earlier on Friday.

Djokovic is still set to take to the court as part of the Falcons vs Hawks tie however, as he will face world No 6 Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final match of the day. The Serb has played just one match this week and suffered a shock 6-3 6-4 defeat to Alexander Zverev, who is yet to play an official ATP Tour event since getting injured in June.

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Novak Djokovic lost his opening match of the World Tennis League on Tuesday (Image: Getty)
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Novak Djokovic hits Alexander Zverev on the bum after ‘deadly’ shot
Djokovic was also struck by a ball in that match, as the German hit a powerful shot into the 21-time Major winner’s chest as commentator Robbie Koenig added: “That was a deadly accurate shot from Zverev.”

And the 35-year-old made fun of that incident too, jokingly pretending to smash the ball towards the world No 12 in return. Zverev then bent over in front of Djokovic who hit the ball softly at his bum.

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