The knee injury sustained by Novak Djokovic during his five-set win over Francisco Cerundolo in the fourth round of the French Open on Monday afternoon turned out to be a very real thing.
After getting an MRI, Djokovic–who would have faced Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals–withdrew from the tournament on Tuesday. The 37-year-old Serb has a torn medial meniscus in his right knee.
“I am really sad to announce that I have to withdraw from #rolandgarros,” Djokovic wrote on Instagram. “I played with my heart and gave my all in yesterday’s match and unfortunately , due to a meniscus tear in my right knee, my team and I had to make a tough decision after careful consideration and consultation.
“I wish the best of luck to the players competing this week and sincerely thank the incredible fans for all of the love and continued support.
“See you soon.”
The world No. 1’s exit means Jannik Sinner will become the top-ranked player in the world for the first time in his career next week. Djokovic was defending 2,000 points from last year’s title at Roland Garros.
who wins the title now?
Big Al and I picked Sinner in our bracket challenge, but he looked unconvincing against Dimitrov.
Mind you Alcaraz has been a bit hot and cold, as has Zverev. Let’s see how Carlos looks later tonight.
Ruud was probably going to win in 4-5 sets and even the bookmakers had Ruud as favourite. That’s when he knew it was too difficult a task given the circumstances.
The same chances that were going to win it at the beginning. Nothing has changed with Djokovic’s withdrawal except your bad prediction coming to fruition.
The same chances that were going to win it at the beginning. Nothing has changed with Djokovic’s withdrawal except your bad prediction coming to fruition
The favourite from the beginning.
If it’s really a torn meniscus, Djokovic cannot return anytime “soon”.
Also the injury was not sustained during his last match, just aggravated (he said that he started having problems a few weeks ago).
Playing professional tennis is probably one of the worst things to do if your meniscus is damaged – but maybe he did not know what it was until today.
This injury will not heal on its own, at least not enough to play professional tennis, so he will be need surgery and several months to come back.
Now I can’t really trust Djokovic when he speaks of his injuries, let’s see what he does next.
Regarding who wins RG, the main favourites (Alcaraz and Sinner) seem quite fine physically so normally it’s between then and normally Alcaraz wins.
However they might “kill” each other in the semis and Zverev can take advantage… but with him there’s always the meltdown factor.
I was just waiting for you to chime in with your “unbiased” opinion.
You never disappoint…
Ruud now a great chance for the title . Well rested, and good record against Zverev and here in general
anyone could win it now, but Sinner/Alcaraz winner has the edge
Nothing in the past 24 hours has changed the outcome of the event. Cerundolo blowing a 4-2 lead in the 4th set certsinky changed things. He couldve been very competitive against any of the others in an RG final.
in the final? Very unlikely. In the quarters he would have had a small chance of beating Ruud.
https://www.atptour.com/en/players/atp-head-2-head/casper-ruud-vs-francisco-cerundolo/rh16/c0au
https://www.atptour.com/en/players/atp-head-2-head/francisco-cerundolo-vs-alexander-zverev/c0au/z355
Click “event breakdown’ to see the results.
Beats Paul in 4 easily and nearly the same with Djokovic but can’t beat Ruud or Zverev?
An extremely dangerous underdog in that type of scenario. He could just redline and everyone would be scratching their heads what the hell just happened.