Last night following his hard earned four set quarterfinal win over Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic went a little too far during a postmatch interview with USA Network’s Michael Barkan dissing his elder competitor for sarcastic remarks made regarding the No.3 seeded Serb’s health following a Round of 16 win.

Apparently, the 21 year-old Australian Open champion and 2007 U.S. Open runner-up took the reference of his “16 injuries” to heart and indicated on court that he didn’t have that many injuries to beat Roddick. Not surprisingly, the very talented player was booed by the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd who for the most part were in the former 2003 Open champion’s corner. It’s been five years since the 26 year-old American won his only grand slam which also sadly signifies the last one won by a homegrown male singles’ player.

After getting the treatment from a large Roddick contingent while only minimal Nole supporters applauded his efforts, Djokovic didn’t help himself much going on step further about the criticism:

“They (the crowd) are already against me because they think I am faking everything, so sorry.”

Not a wise move which just increased the disdain and most likely added supporters to four-time rating champ Roger Federer for their semifinal. The classy 27 year-old Swiss Maestro has never gotten into this kind of situation and should have overwhelming support whenever the 2007 Final rematch takes place. They’re calling for heavy rain on Super Saturday which could push the women’s final between revitalized American Serena Williams and No.2 Serbian Jelena Jankovic along with the two men’s semis between the now top four ranked players in the world with Andy Murray taking over No.4 to Sunday.

Djokovic has come under the radar due to all the injury timeouts he’s used even getting ripped by the normally calm Tommy Robredo, who fell in five sets to him a couple of rounds earlier.

“I never made medical timeout because I wanted to distract the opponent or make the result look worse. I just took the medicals to help me out,” Djokovic answered late last night.

“Maybe the people think that I’m exaggerating with these things, but it’s nothing bad. I twist my ankle, I feel bad. I get the pain in the back. I just want to make it right. Andy was always nice to me when I got to the tour, so this was just a clear misunderstanding.”

It was just a year ago that Djokovic was a fan favorite with New Yorkers who enjoyed his dead on player impersonations while serving. Sometimes, that didn’t sit too well with some of his peers which explains why he’s cut it out of his matches this year.

“It’s different,” he said. “Once you win the Grand Slam title and win a couple more major events, you get more attention from everybody, and it’s logical. I don’t want to make any impersonations any more. It’s not that I don’t want to. This is something that people will get wrong. And this is exactly the reason, and this is exactly the situation I don’t want to be in — fighting with people, with the press, and this is absolutely not me.”

Perhaps one of the ATP’s top players who enjoys getting a laugh or two should heed the advice of Roddick.

“It was completely meant in jest,” he explained. “I figure if you’re going to joke and imitate other people and do the whole deal, then you should take it.

“If someone wants to focus in on that and use it, then by all means, but especially in Novak’s case, if you’re going to dish out all the stuff, then be able to take it with a smile, is the only part that I don’t quite agree with.”

Misunderstandings happen all the time. Especially in sports. As long as they’re on the same page, that’s good for future meetings. Though you just know some of the old school guys such as John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors who was in attendance last night watching his former pupil wouldn’t mind seeing some of that bad blood which could give a sometimes bland sport a little extra juice a la those classic meetings between the former American stars. We don’t see many heated tennis rivalries anymore. And the ones that are a la Federer-Nadal lack that sorta substance due to the level of respect each has for each other.

Djokovic shouldn’t expect too much support the rest of this weekend no matter what happens.