Former World No. 1, Novak Djokovic, who exited the Wimbledon with an elbow injury on Wednesday, while playing his quarterfinal match against Tomas Berdych on Court No. 1. Djokovic revealed that he has been bothered by an elbow problem for almost one and a half year now.
“To be honest, I was. I mean, the specialists that I've talked with, they haven't been really too clear, mentioning also surgery, mentioning different options. Nobody was very clear in what needs to be done. As long as it kind of comes and goes, it's fine. But obviously, adding up, maybe it worked for seven, eight, ten months, but now the next seven months is not working that great. Obviously it's adding up more and more. The more I play, the worse it gets. Yeah, I guess the break is something that I will have to consider right now.”
Djokovic, just like Andy Murray, refused to reveal details of his recovery. “Well, it's not a time and place for me to talk about the details. I'm just going to talk with specialists, as I have done in the last year or so, try to figure out what's the best way to treat it and to solve it, to find a long-term solution. Obviously short-term it's probably rest is most appropriate. We will see.”
“Well, the intensity and the level of pain was not decreasing. It was only increasing as the days went by. Actually, I started feeling it already more or less at the beginning of the tournament. I kept doing everything with my physiotherapist, and physiotherapist of ATP, what we possibly could to try to recover it and get it into the state where I'm actually able to perform. I was able to perform up to this stage. But as I've said, it was only getting worse. Unfortunately today was the worst day. Probably the fact that I played yesterday, kind of days adding up, you know, as I've said before, it wasn't helping at all. In the end of the day, this is something I have to deal with and accept it.”
Speaking about the injury post-match, Djokovic said, “It's not the shoulder. It's the elbow that already keeps bothering for over a year and a half actually.It's unfortunate that I had to finish Wimbledon, Grand Slam, this way. I mean, if someone feels bad about it, it's me. But, you know, I tried. I tried what I could do from yesterday, you know, to get it in the condition where I'm able to play. I was able maybe, you know, for 30 minutes to play with some pain that was bearable, let's call it that way. All the treatments and medicaments [sic] couldn't really help. The serve and forehand were the shots where I could feel it the most. Just after that there was really no sense.”
Djokovic, who was supposed to play his fourth round match against Adrian Mannarino on Monday, had to come out on Tuesday to play his match due to an extended Rafael Nadal and Gilles Muller’s match on Court No. 1 on day seven. The former Wimbledon champion had already expressed his unhappiness over scheduling and added on Wednesday that such situations does not help while not being fully fit.
“Yeah, those kind of particular circumstances don't really help. But at the end of the day, it's the kind of situation which you have to accept and try to make the most out of it. As I've said, you know, I spend probably about two hours, two and a half hours today on the table in between the warm-up and match, trying to do everything I possibly could to, you know, make me fit. But it wasn't to be. You know, for an athlete, especially in an individual sport, there is no way out. If you don't feel fit, unfortunately that's it. You know, there is no one to come instead of you.”
Both Murray and Djokovic have struggled with their physical forms this years. Sharing his view on that, Djokovic said, “We both had a very long, very tough year, a lot of matches, a lot of emotions, a lot of things in play. Our bodies have taken a lot physically.So, I mean, as an athlete, one way or another, at a certain stage of your career, you're going to experience these kind of things. Injuries are part of this sport, unfortunately. Professional tennis is getting very physical in the last couple of years. It's not easy to kind of play on the highest level throughout the entire season, then be able to do that over and over again every season, and then stay healthy.”
“I mean, obviously we do everything in our power. That's why we have huge amount of people around us in our teams, to make sure that we cover every field or expertise that we possibly can so we can perform as best we can. At the end of the day, we're all humans. We got to go through these stages.”
“Yeah, I mean, for an athlete, any athlete for that matter, is really hard to swallow, when you have to retire, especially when you're playing well. I was playing really well, I thought, probably the best tennis I've played in the last 10 months or so. I played great. I haven't dropped any set in Eastbourne, coming into quarterfinals today. Felt really good on the court. It's just unfortunate. But in life, you know, these particular things happen for a reason. It takes some time and obviously thinking to understand why this happened, and to obviously learn from it.”
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