Despite injury concerns, Novak Djokovic continues to move through the Australian Open draw. Up next for the world No. 1 during quarterfinal action on Tuesday is 2020 U.S. Open finalist Alexander Zverev.
Usually, an Australian Open match that involves Novak Djokovic is fairly easy to call. The Happy Slam is Djokovic’s personal playground. Not to the extent that Paris is Rafael Nadal’s, but the Serb holds eight Aussie Open titles; when he’s in the draw and healthy, he’s the favorite.
The problem is that he doesn’t appear to be completely healthy. During his third-round match against American Taylor Fritz, Djokovic slipped on the “Melbourne” lettering on the back of the court and sustained some sort of injury to his side. The extent of the injury is still unclear.
Djokovic didn’t withdraw from his fourth-round match. In fact, he looked quite spry against his familiar punching bag in Milos Raonic. The top seed won in four sets, but during his post-match presser Djokovic refused to give more details.
“I understand that you want to know, but I really don’t want to get into it,” he said. “Yes, I did an MRI, I did everything, I know what it is, but I don’t want to talk about it now.”
He didn’t appear overly hampered against Raonic, but the Canadian–who is just short of helpless when Djokovic is across the net–isn’t well-positioned to take advantage, even when the Serb isn’t at 100%
Quarterfinal opponent Alexander Zverev is a different story. The two men played about a week and a half ago at the ATP Cup, when Djokovic was playing at 100 percent. The German took one set and pushed Djokovic hard in the others. It stands to reason if the world No. 1 is ailing at all, it presents quite an opportunity for Zverev.
There are many “ifs” in this match. If Djokovic is still hurt, Zverev will have his chances–and he’s playing well enough to take them. If Zverev serves poorly and gives the Serb too many looks at his dismal second serve, it won’t much matter if Djokovic is only at 75 percent. It seems that while Djokovic isn’t terribly hurt, he’s also not in peak shape. Zverev may just pull off the upset.
Cheryl pick: Zverev in 5
Ricky pick: Zverev in 5
Djokovic is obviously not injured; it’s just some discomfort on which a drama has been built. Claiming that you have a torn muscle and then refusing to disclose medical scan results proves a complete lack of character, but we knew that already.
That being said, he’s not playing his best tennis and this whole circus that he started is going to turn against him sooner rather than later.
Zverev to beat him fair and square and Djokovic to suggest that it’s because of the injury (maybe even retire).
Just my words.
If Djokovic can snap one of the two first sets, he will probably play the full match with some circus performances during the match to show people that he obviously aint playing 100%.
It’s very close, as close it can get.
Djokovic in 5.
Zverev in 4.
Nah Zverev is not beating Novak, histrionics or not, lol!! Hope match lives up to it’s billing though!
They all look like 5 set matches except Nadal v Tsitsipas which is 4 sets.
Zverev can win. I have Djokovic just winning but the circumstantials can swing it in Zverev’s favour.
No poll on how many MTO’s Djoker requests? What’s the over/under on that? I’m guessing Djoker won’t reveal the name of his injury because he’s embarrassed about how minor it is after all the fuss he made about it.
Djerker in 5. He’s a jerk but he plays tennis very well. Zverev tends to wilt under pressure. Sorry Sasha but it it what it is.
I’m totally done with Joker ( “Djerker”…above comment!!)…..Zv in 4.
I don’t for a second believe they are faking injuries’ – Patrick Mouratoglou on Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
Novak- Zverev 3-1
First set Zverev
Both of them (Rafa and Novak) have obviously some discomfort but their approach at dealing with this pain and how much they show/tell is VERY different.
As we know, the practice of tennis is very harsh on one’s body, if they had some serious issue they would already have pulled out, simple as that.
Ricky n Cheryl both getting the pick wrong. Never bet against djoker .he did great job fooling all with his injury..he will lose even more respect but win the slam
can’t believe this Zverev?!? He wins the first set and instead of gaining momentum his game just falls apart in the second.. I am not able to watch the match but just by following the live score I notice Sasha is just being outplayed right now… and I assume Novak is not injured as expected: his serve percentage is high and he is destroying Zverev right now…
Zverev is not playing to win he is playing not to lose.
No one with a stomach tear would attempt to smash a racquet like that.
Good point. Maybe for Djerker racquet smashes have healing effects.
Playing ping pong with Djokovic is as good as handing him the match even before the match starts.
So Nole is in the final again!
No disrespect to Karatsev but he ain’t gonna beat him…
Karatsev will not fear Djokovic one bit. I’m really looking for to the encounter.
I will crunch my numbers now and see what the expected result is
Yeah, he may not fear him, but he still won’t beat Novak!!
Zverev had way more chances than anyone in this tourney is ever going to have! Astonishing!!
Lets go Nole, what a beast! Lets go and claim the AO.
Congratulations AVN (you are very lonely here as a Novak fan)
But, he needs to get pass the SF first 🙂
I have this being really close. 4-5 sets with a slight edge to Djokovic. Karatsev can win. No BS.
Nadal just wins also by the barest of margins. Could go 5 sets.
No chance .a qualifier against novak in his kingdom ? I’d be surprised if it’s not straight sets
What’s really embarrassing is my results data was incorrect the whole time but I’m now fixed it. No wonder my predictions were off.
So wat r u saying for rafa tsitsi ?
Wat result data r u talking abt ? It’s what they do on court that matters right on the day .is it based on past results ?
break points converted:
Nole 67% (6 out of 9).
Zverev 25% (3 out of 12).
That’s the whole story right there!! These r the bare intangibles that matter!
Racket reaching breaking point:
Nole 100 %
Zverev 0 %