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Novak Djokovic declined to detail the abdominal injury which he says would have taken him out of any tournament except a Grand Slam, with speculation he is using fury to his advantage on the court.
World No.1 Djokovic reached the open from Australia quarter-finals Sunday evening by beat 14th seed Milos Raonic in four sets, 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-1 6-4. It was his 300th Grand Slam singles victory.
Still, speculation rages on the extent of an injury above his right hip which Djokovic, 33, initially described as a “tear”. He used pain relievers to control the problem before playing Raonic.
The eight-time Open champion and 17-time Grand Slam winner says he now knows exactly what the injury is – but declined to tell the media.
“I understand you want to know but I really don’t want to go into what it is. Yes, I had an MRI, I did everything, I know what it is, but I don’t want to talk now, ”Djokovic said, starting a long response.
“I’m still in the tournament. Hope you understand that. I don’t want to speculate too much about this.
“It’s not ideal for me. I mean, I definitely felt better, you know, heading into my third round game against [Taylor] Fritz than me from the third set with Fritz when it happened and the whole game today.
“I didn’t know a few hours before I got on the court tonight whether or not I would play. I didn’t hit a tennis ball yesterday. Like I said, I tried to use every hour to recover and give myself at least a little bit of a chance to walk the field, which I did.
“Like I said on the pitch, if I’m in any tournament other than the Grand Slam, I certainly wouldn’t play. But it’s a Grand Slam. It matters a lot to me at this point in my career. , of I want to do everything possible in this very short period of time to enter the field.
“Playing the best of five, you know, with some kind of aggressive mover that I’m on the pitch doesn’t help much with that kind of injury, but I think the combination of, you know, pills and drugs and treatments and also a certain will, you know, and of course a certain degree and a certain level of pain support.
“Mentally I think you have to come to terms with the fact that I walked into the game knowing that I would probably feel pain throughout, which I was. But it was the level of pain that was bearable, so I could actually play.
“And it was happening a bit intermittently during the game. At some stages of the match it was more, some stages less. But I managed to find a way and win, and that’s what matters most. .
“Now I have another 40 hours or something until the next game, which is great for the Grand Slam. You get that day, a day and a half in between to really rest. So, you know, i probably won’t train tomorrow and just, once again, go back to the recovery routine and hope things get better.
“I mean, it’s kind of a bet, I mean, that’s what the medical team told me. It’s really unpredictable, you can’t know what’s going to happen with you an once you’re on the field. You’re not going to run away or think about going for that point or that shot or that shot. It just shoots you. It’s normal.
“By playing at this level, you just want to give it your all. It could cause a lot more damage than it does now, but it could also be a step in the right direction. So it’s something I don’t know, and I don’t know. I don’t think I will know that too until I stop taking pain relievers.
“As long as I’m on high-dose pain relievers, I guess, you know, I can still take some of the pain.” But the problem with pain relievers is that they kind of hide what’s really going on in there, so you might not feel it, but then the big damage could be done.
“But again, I’m okay with everything that happens after the tournament, because I’m going to take some time to heal properly before I get back on the pitch.”
Top coach Patrick Mouratoglou suggested that Djokovic couldn’t have an abdominal tear and that he often played the effects of injuries to his advantage.
“Sometimes during matches, Novak plays with the opponent’s mind a bit when he’s in trouble,” Mouratoglou, who coaches Serena Williams among an elite all-star team, told Tennis Majors.
“He pretends to let go of the fact that he’s not there. And then, boom, he’s playing again. He’s done that a lot of time in the past, OK, but he’s not faking an injury for a tournament.”
Mouratoglou added on Twitter: “Looking at his performance so far against Raonic, it’s hard to believe Novak has an abdominal muscle tear.”
Former British debutant Tim Henman agreed, telling Eurosport: “He was talking about an abdominal tear. Well, if it’s an abdominal tear, it’s almost impossible to continue.”
Djokovic backed Victoria Azarenka’s call that players should not be asked to disclose specific injury information. He said that while the injury was better against Raonic than against Fritz, it hurt when stretching for some shots.
“We are in a rotational sport so it affects everything. It affects every shot,” said Djokovic.
“It affects every time I take a separate step and turn or every time I extend and try to hit the serve or whatever, you know. Every extreme ball slides, because that’s what I do. , and every time I slipped today for some, you know, far away, I would feel it a lot. “
Djokovic said he had been told the risk of serious injury was relatively low, but that he would face a layoff after the tournament.
“I have spoken a lot with my own medical team and also with the Tennis Australia – Australian Open medical team,” he said.
“They all share the opinion that there’s a slight, very slight, slim chance that I would do some major damage that would take me off the tour for something, you know, an extended period.”
“So, yeah, there’s always, as I mentioned before, a risk of the injury getting worse, but they don’t think it’s going to be much worse than it’s going to jeopardize my entire season. So it’s going to put in jeopardy, you know, depending on how i go here, it will jeopardize, you know, some tournaments that come after the australian open that i was maybe thinking of playing.
“So I’m probably going to have to, you know, take a little longer than I thought I would before and heal, recover, and then resume touring. But that’s something that’s always in the clouds. I don’t. really don’t. ” I don’t know exactly, you know, how far I’m going to go with this injury or how far I’m going to go in the tournament.
“There are potentially three games to go and it will only get more and more difficult for me on the pitch.”
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