Novak is an excellent exemplar of the key character indicators of hard work, discipline, stick-to-it, and single-minded-focus that define grit. If you want the guy that glad-hands everyone and is always perfectly political, then he might not be the miss-congeniality winner. The joke that became the best sportsman awards in tennis should tell us all how meaningless those items are when it comes to judging the best player.
I feel that much of this shade thrown over Novak is from the media narrative. He is the usurper on the Fedal dynasty. Many strongly partisan Fed fans were unhappy when Nadal began to overtake him not just in numbers but in H2H results. Their friendship was a good media device for tennis for sure.
Thee are also cultural considerations. Many Western sensibilities don't like the strong defiance and resolute determination that Novak displays against hostile crowds that often favored Fed or Nadal or other crowd favorites. He doesn't taunt them like Mac used to do but he will not back down. This is part of a national character that some perceive as arrogance while most in the English speaking countries go with the humble warrior model and most conform to that role.
Add in his personal choice to decline an experimental medical treatment and to accept the penalty of not playing as is his right. Yet he was vilified by many of the tennis establishment for not taking the knee and the jab. Arguments that this is arrogant are often put forth by compliant dupes that will line up for anything. I don't hear from many of the former pushers of this bragging about their boosters any longer now that we know the risks involved.
