Djokovic reflects on touching umpire's shoe in Melbourne

Novak Djokovic captured his 17th Grand Slam title on Sunday with a five-set win over Dominic Thiem, 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Along the way, there was one blip that caught the world's attention. At 4-4 in the second set, Djokovic received two time violations from umpire Damien Dumusois for going over the 25-second serve shot clock. A disgruntled Djokovic lost his serve, and as he changed sides, he tapped Dumusois' shoe.

While seated, Djokovic directed some sarcastic words at Dumusois including, "You made yourself famous. Well done."

The Serbian would move on from the testy exchange, and claim his record eighth Australian Open crown. In press, he dismissed shoe-gate, which could come with a hefty $20,000 fine.

"For touching his shoe? I mean, I didn't know that's completely forbidden," he said in press. "I thought it was a nice, really friendly touch. I wasn't aggressive with him in terms of physical abuse. I just couldn't believe that I got the time violation. It kind of disturbed me. That's all there is to it. Verbally we did have some exchanges, but no insults because if I did insult him, I would get a warning."

But on Monday, during his victory lap and trophy photoshoot, Djokovic had some further thoughts on the matter.

"In a professional sport, things happen that obviously you're not proud of," he said. "Sometimes you do things that you're not happy with and you go through different emotions, you go through ups and downs."

No matter what fine gets brought down on Djokovic, if any, this shoe tap shouldn't take away from what he has achieved. He's now two Grand Slam titles behind Rafael Nadal, and has surpassed the Spaniard to take back the world No. 1 ranking.