Novak Djokovic withdraws from French Open as worryng MRI results revealed
Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the French Open.
Novak Djokovic has pulled out of the French Open ahead of his quarter-final. The world No. 1 picked up a knee injury during his fourth-round clash with Francisco Cerundolo on Monday and cast doubts over whether he could play his next match.
The reigning champion had some medical tests immediately after coming off the court and went for an MRI scan on Tuesday. After receiving worrying results, he withdrew from the tournament.
As a result of his withdrawal, Casper Ruud will advance directly into Friday's semi-final. Djokovic will also relinquish his world No. 1 spot to Jannik Sinner, who will reach the top of the rankings for the first time in his career on Monday.
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The French Open officially announced Djokovic's withdrawal on Tuesday afternoon, around 24 hours before he would have been due to face Ruud in the last eight. "Due to a torn medial meniscus in his right knee (discovered during an MRI scan performed today), Novak Djokovic, who was supposed to play Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals tomorrow, has been forced to withdraw from the Roland-Garros tournament," the statement read.
The three-time champion at Roland Garros injured himself during the third game of the second set of his match against Cerundolo. He called the physio and received treatment during a medical time-out. The trainer and doctor returned a few more times and Djokovic took two lots of medication - the "maximum dose" he was allowed.
He dropped the next two sets and went down a break in the fourth before the painkillers kicked in and he mounted a 6-1 5-7 3-6 7-5 6-3 comeback. But Djokovic later confessed that he thought about retiring from the match and didn't know whether he'd be ready to face Ruud.
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Djokovic also slipped on the clay multiple times and complained about the quality of the surface during and after the match, claiming that his injury could have been prevented. The 37-year-old had been carrying some discomfort in his knee for a couple of weeks but explained that it didn't affect him during matches until he fell and hurt himself.
"I actually felt great coming into the match, as good as I could under the circumstances and played really well first set," he explained after having post-match medical tests on Monday night. "Then in the third game of the second set, I slipped, one of the many times that I slipped and fell today. That affected the knee.
"Then, you know, I started feeling the pain and asked for the physio treatment and the medical timeout and tried to take care of it. It did disrupt me definitely in play. For two sets, two sets and a half, I didn't want to stay in the rally too long. Every time he would make sudden dropshots or change directions, I would not be feeling comfortable to do the running. At one point I didn't know, to be honest, whether I should continue or not with what's happening. I got the medications, and then after the third set was done, I asked for more medications, and I got them."
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Although the pain medication allowed him to finish and win the match, Djokovic didn't know what further tests would show about the injury. And the MRI scan has now revealed something far more serious. It is not known how long the Serb will be sidelined for, but he has less than a month until Wimbledon begins.
On Monday night, he explained that his previous knee discomfort was not down to anything specific. "I think it was more the probably the wear and tear. But again, I'm saying, you know, I did carry it with me for a couple of weeks, but I did not feel that it was affecting me on the court. Meaning as soon as I would warm up, I would feel fine. I would run, I would do splits, slides, whatever. You know, it wasn't any kind of an issue when I start to play," he added.
"When I was cold, that's where I feel the discomfort, et cetera. So today, again, we did put an extra care and attention to the knee in the last few days, my physio and I. It's like we, you know, predicted something might happen, so yeah, that helped, but I don't know.
"I mean, today is just one of these things when you're on the court, you slip, do a bad move, you're in an unstable, unbalanced position. I guess that's probably a weaker part of my body that has had some few weeks of history, I guess, that reacted, you know."
