Novak Djokovic revealed Monday at the French Open that he’s been carrying a right knee injury for a few weeks now.
Things were good with the knee, Djokovic said, until early in the second set of his epic 4 hours, 39 minute win today over Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Djokovic needed treatment on the right knee and afterward hobbled about the court. Luckily pain killers kicked in late and he was able to rally.
“For the last couple weeks I have had, I would say, slight discomfort, I would call it that way, in the right knee,” Djokovic said Monday. “But I haven’t had an injury that would be concerning me at all. I was playing a few tournaments with it, and no issues until today.
“Of course late finish from few nights ago didn’t help the sleeping, the biorhythm, and recovery, but I actually felt great coming into the match, as good as I could under the circumstances and played really well first set.
“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 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.
“That was the maximum dose that kicked in, as I heard now from doctor after 30 to 45 minutes, which was just about the time kind of end of the fourth when things started to really improve for me. I started to feel less limitations in my movement.
“Basically the whole fifth set was almost without any pain, which is great.”
Djokovic will now to have to see how the knee feels Tuesday when he wakes up. He hopeful of playing Wednesday in his quarterfinal against Casper Ruud.
“I guess we’ll do some more screening and tests and checkups tomorrow, as well,” he said. “We have done some with doctor right now after the match. Some positive news but also some maybe concerns, so let’s see tomorrow. I can’t tell you more about it at the moment.
“You never know what will happen tomorrow. I have had situations in my career where I…
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