PARIS, FRANCE — Serbian antihero and habitual offender Novak Djokovic has apologized to the sport of tennis after he was caught on camera striking a line judge at Roland Garros—the second time in as many grand slams that the wildly unpopular world number one has smashed a ball into the face of a defenseless official.

Addressing the incident during his post-match press conference, Djokovic claimed to have not seen the line judge despite standing next to him and tried to pass blame onto his opponent Karen Khachanov, who the former French Open champion alleged forced him into it.

"I'm not sure who's really at fault here," said freelance tennis journalist Brian Spencer who attended the press conference on Zoom. "Khachanov is a nice guy, but Djokovic says he's nice, too. I think all things being equal, you have to put the most blame on the official for standing directly in the path of Novak's shot."

"Given what happened at the US Open, Novak's lucky they didn't say he intentionally shanked the ball into the guy's head."

Chairman of the ATP Tour referee's union Frasier Upton said assigning blame for the incident was unnecessary at this point, believing the most pressing concern to be ensuring the safety of the on-court officials standing or sitting in Djokovic's firing line.

"We're currently considering a proposal to remove all line judges from Mr. Djokovic's matches," announced Upton. "Obviously, it's unsafe for our officials to be working in close proximity to him. Several options are on the table from outfitting them in hockey pads and helmets to switching out the yellow ball for a red ball foam trainer."

"If this sort of behavior continues, however, the union will have no choice but to arm all of our officials with balls and racquets of their own so they can hit him back."