Novak Djokovic has already placed blame after Serb forced to withdraw from French Open
Novak Djokovic questioned whether his injury could have been prevented less than 24 hours before pulling out of the French Open.
Novak Djokovic had already blamed his knee injury on the condition of the court before being forced to pull out of the French Open. The reigning champion fell and hurt himself during his fourth-round match on Monday night.
He repeatedly asked officials if the court could be swept more often to prevent it from becoming slippery but his requests were ignored.
Although he didn’t want to “point fingers” at anyone in particular, Djokovic suggested that his injury could have been prevented.
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Djokovic continued to ask for the clay to be swept during his match, claiming that it was causing him to fall too often. “I screwed up my knee. I'm slipping and sliding all the time,” he told the umpire. After falling in the fifth set, he sarcastically ranted: “Great job from you guys. You know better than us. It’s not slippery at all. Not dangerous at all. Well done supervisor and everyone. Ground staff, well done.”
Despite injuring himself, he managed to pull off a comeback after taking painkillers and beat Francisco Cerundolo 6-1 5-7 3-6 7-5 6-3. By the time he addressed the media after the match, he had already undergone some medical tests. And he went on an impassionated rant about the state of the clay.
“I don't know what exactly they [the grounds people] have done. It seems like that some of the clay was removed, so there was very little, almost no clay on the court today. Because of the drier conditions and sun and warmer conditions, it affects the clay in such a way that, you know, it becomes very slippery,” he explained.
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Djokovic then went on to blame his injury directly on the slippery court surface. He added: “So the injury that I had today with the knee happened exactly because of that, because I slipped, and I slide a lot. I mean, everyone slides on clay, but I slipped way too many times.
“That is quite unusual, you know. Of course I do, because I have an aggressive kind of movement, dynamic change of directions. It's normal for me, I've slipped and fell on the clay many times in my life, and on grass as well, but this was just too many times, you know, today.”
The 37-year-old then questioned why his requests to have the court swept more often were rejected, though he made it clear that he didn’t want to single anyone out over the issue. “I've had a conversation with the chair umpire where I just asked, you know, would it be possible to sweep the court? I understand not every changeover but every second, every third changeover,” he continued.
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“You know, not to wait for a set to finish but to have just slightly more frequent care of the court. She said she'll check, and she spoke to the grounds people or supervisor, supervisor to grounds people, and the answer was no. I asked for supervisor to have a conversation, and I just asked for explanation.
“Look, I'm not pointing fingers, that it's someone is blaming whoever, a group or an individual of why that's the case. I'm just trying to understand in this whole process what is the damage to the court to sweep it - anyway, we do it with our feet, you know. Before you serve, you know, a lot of players do it, they either clean the line or the space in front where you're going to bounce the ball or behind. I just don't see how that's damaging to the court.”
Djokovic still didn’t know whether he’d be ready to take to the court for the quarter-final when he spoke. But he questioned whether his injury could have been prevented. “I'm just trying to understand, you know, if a player is feeling a certain way and then, you know, what else do we need to wait for for that to happen?” he asked.
“I mean, today I injured myself. Yes, I survived. I won the match. Great. But will I be able to play next one? I don't know. I don't know the severity of the injury. But could this injury [have been] prevented? Possibly, if, you know, if there was just a little bit more of a frequent care of the court during the set.”
