Novak Djokovic He finished his match against Cerúndolo offering a new survival exercise, but every effort has its possible consequence. For him, that consequence came in the form of discomfort in his knee. That puts his presence in the quarterfinals at risk. Roland Garros 2024 before Casper Ruud.
And, as he himself confirmed at a press conference, he cannot guarantee 100% that he will be able to take to the court on Wednesday against the Norwegian due to these knee problems. With Wimbledon just around the corner and the Olympics in less than two months, he doesn’t want to risk a major problem that could jeopardize such an important part of the season.
Sensations in your knee
In recent weeks I have been having a little discomfort in my right knee, but it is not an injury as such. He has already been playing with it for a couple of tournaments and without problems until today. What happened two days ago certainly didn’t help me, in terms of being able to sleep, recover, and so on. The truth is that before the match I felt good and I played a great first set. In the third game of the second set, I felt that in my knee when I slipped and that affected my knee.
I asked for physio because I felt pain. That affected my game. For two sets I didn’t want to get into many rallies. If he made drop shots or changes of direction, he didn’t feel comfortable in the race. At a certain point, I even wondered whether or not he should continue playing with what was happening. I asked for more medication after the third set. I took the maximum dose I could take and started to feel the effects in the fourth set. I felt less limitations in my movements. In the fifth I played without pain, but the effect of the medications does not last forever, so we will see. Tomorrow I will take tests.
About those annoyances
Right after the game I looked at my knee with the doctor. There are good and bad things. So, tomorrow we will see. I can’t tell you more right now. I’m glad I was able to play the fifth set without pain. I have already played other tournaments in the past with muscle tears. The adrenaline we feel also helps us. The good thing about a Slam is that you have a day of rest between one match and another, and that can help recovery. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go out on Wednesday to play. I hope so.
On the slopes
Because of the weather, the conditions this year are a little special. We’ve had a lot of rain, very heavy conditions and that affects the soil. This is a living surface, like grass. The earth can be treated, not like grass. Roland Garros is the tournament that treats the earth best, without a doubt. I think the sun today has affected the earth, in some way. I don’t know what they’ve done, but it seems like they’ve removed something from the dirt that’s not there on the track. My injury occurred because, for this reason, the ground becomes very slippery. I have a very aggressive movement, with very abrupt changes in direction. The amount of slips I had today were too many.
Complaints about track treatment
I asked the chair umpire if they could sweep the court more. Maybe not in every exchange, but every two or three. I was told not to. They asked the supervisor, and he also refused. I don’t want to point fingers, I’m just trying to figure out what the problem is with sweeping the track more often. Not hurt anyone. It would be a good thing for the players, putting more dirt and sweeping it more. It would reduce the number of slips.
About your problem today
The ATP physio did the best he could, but at that point, he can’t do much either. He couldn’t change directions or run to left ones. He saw it even Francisco himself (Cerúndolo). The reason I continued is because I wanted to see if the anti-inflammatories he was taking were working for him. I asked for the maximum they could give me and I just felt it after 45 minutes. That allowed me to give my maximum until the end of the game.
What did you do yesterday
I slept almost all day. Playing petanque was the most demanding thing I did. I did a lot of work with the physio and in the pool, to reduce the tension in the muscles and joints. I tried to get a good night’s sleep. As I said before, I came into the game well. I didn’t feel like the previous encounter had affected me much. Physically, he was fine. This injury is somewhat unpredictable. Now I will speak with my team to see the procedure to follow for tomorrow with my knee.
