After recruiting his former Andy Murray rival as a luxury coach in the fall, with the stated objective of winning this 25th trophy who flees him, the Serbian gave the impression of gaining strength over the tournament. Until this quarter -final against Carlos Alcaraz, both sumptuous from a point of view of the game and fatal on the physical level since Djokovic said he was “concerned” by his injury at the end of the match and the dissipation of Effects of painkillers.
More frequent injuries
Friday against Zverev, “drugs, care and strap […] Helped, but towards the end of the first set I started to feel an increasingly important pain, too difficult to manage, “he said. An end of the bitter tournament for the Serbian who had been able to check before the start of the Australian Open how much his opponents still fear it.
Temphable, Djokovic had invited himself at the end of the pre-tournoi press conference of Alexander Zverev and had asked if he could ask a question. The German had answered him before he could even put it: “Yes, you will win your 25th Grand Slam, we will all be happy. Youpi, Novak Djokovic again! », Smiled the world n.2.
The abandonment of Djokovic recalls his package last year in the quarterfinals of Roland-Garros due to a right knee injury after a qualification snatched from high struggle in the previous round against the Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo. In 2021 then in 2023, Djokovic had won the Australian Open despite injuries, respectively to the abs and hamstrings, but this time now seems to be over. “I do not wonder before each great home if I will injure myself or not, but statistics do not play in my favor in recent years,” he recognized on Friday.
-“I will continue”
After Roger Federer's sports retreats in September 2022 and Rafael Nadal last November, that of the last active member of the Big 3 of male tennis could end up winning. There is a “possibility” that the 2025 edition of the Australian Open was its last, he admitted on Friday. But “I'm going to continue fighting to win more Grand Flém,” he also said, when he does not yet know the duration of his absence of the circuit but recalled on Friday that he had planned to compete The Doha tournament (February 17-22). “I'm going to return to Europe, consult my medical team and try to understand how to recover quickly,” he said.
