So much for the abdominal injury that plagued Novak Djokovic during his five-set win over Taylor Fritz at the Australian Open on Friday night.
Two days later, Djokovic came back out looking new and improved. The world No. 1 appeared at–or at least close to–his physical best and improved to 12-0 lifetime against Milos Raonic with a 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory, earning his spot in the quarterfinals of the season’s first Grand Slam. A high-quality contest saw Djokovic finish with 16 more winners than unforced errors (Raonic was +15) as the Serb prevailed after two hours and 56 minutes.
There was some concern that Djokovic would be unable to take the court after struggling for the last three sets of his win over Fritz. Nonetheless, the eight-time Aussie Open champion put those fears to rest with a solid pre-match practice and once the night-session festivities got underway there was little doubt about Djokovic’s ability to get through it.
“I did a lot of recovery,” the 33-year-old said of his preparation. “I mean, [lots and lots] of time with my physio on the table, trying to rest as much as I can. (I) did different treatments with different devices. You know, just pills, painkillers, and stuff like this with medical team of Tennis Australia and (the) Australian Open. That definitely helped a lot. And (the) ATP physios, I want to thank them again for being available for me and for my physiotherapist and giving their best to allow me to be in the condition to compete.”
Afterward, Djokovic was unwilling to go into detail about what the situation was–or is.
“I understand that you want to know, but I really don’t want to get into it what it is,” he commented. “Yes, I did an MRI; I did everything, I know what it is, but I don’t want to talk about it now. I’m still in the tournament. I hope you guys understand that. I don’t want to speculate too much about it.
“I didn’t know few hours before I stepped on the court tonight whether I’m gonna play or not. I didn’t hit a tennis ball yesterday. As I said, I tried to use every single hour possibly to recover and give myself at least a little bit of chance to step on the court, which I have done. As I said on the court, if I’m part of any other tournament other than Grand Slam, I definitely wouldn’t be playing.”
Next up for Djokovic is the quarterfinals of this slam against Alexander Zverev, a straight-set winner over Dusan Lajovic on Sunday night.
Djokovic leads the head-to-head series 5-2 and has won four in a row, most recently defeating the German 6-7(3), 6-2, 7-5 at the ATP Cup earlier this month.
will he win the tournament?
I dunno if he’ll win the tournament for the 9th time, but he’s in strong convention for the Drama Queen Award.
Djoker has become famous for his timeouts for issues of one kind or another (see PCB and various others) when losing, but what really surprised me was that there was not a peep out of him during the RG final. Not even a racket smash. Maybe he just figured it was hopeless and wouldn’t affect Rafa anyway.
Hard to smash a racquet on damp clay …
H’mm, maybe Djoker learned from experience? He did a pretty good racket smash in Rome in 2018 v Rafa. I thought it was a good sign for him. That was when he was still suffering from his right arm problem and for the past year he’d put on this saintly long-suffering expression that was so obviously doing his tennis no good at all.
I have Zverev v Djokovic being very close so the winner of that has a good chance.
They will be tired but so will whoever makes it through the other side.
The 2 without injuries and youth on their side are Zverev and Medvedev.
I doubt Rublev can beat both Medvedev and Nadal.
Kyrgious is right in the sense that nole has the attention seeking mentality. It doesn’t matter whether its injury related or some other issue. Trying to play victim card.. Shedding tears in his country tv interview etc
Medvedev seems to have steadied the ship.
Updated odds for the title:
Medvedev 3.5/1
Djokovic 4/1
Zverev 8/1
Nadal 8/1
Tsitipas 12/1
Rublev 16/1
Dimitrov 26/1
The market has probably got it right. I’m not too far away.
https://www.betfair.com.au/exchange/plus/tennis/market/1.168248014
Rafa dropped to 8/1 from 5/1..why in one day
My guess is because his back injury has improved.
Combined with No Dominic Thiem, Djokovic’s stomach issue and Medvedev going 5 sets.
Most of his potential opponents will be more fatigued if they meet excluding Zverev and Rublev.
but they will be if they get that far whereas Nadal should be more fresh.
Nadal’s brutal when he knows he has a fitness edge.
beatdown so far