Novak Djokovic’s miraculous participation at Wimbledon has a secret. Secret which allowed the Serbian champion to recover in time to play the Championships with a very specific goal: matching Roger Federer’s 8 titles. And his secret is Djokovic’s doctor.
Nole, after playing a set with the new ATP No.1 Jannik Sinner, participated in the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic exhibition event, to further test the condition of his knee after the meniscus surgery three weeks ago. The Serbian champion played a best-of-three sets match against Daniil Medvedev and managed to beat the Russian with a score of 6-3 6-4. Nole paid a lot of attention to the movements to be made, especially from the baseline, and always tried to shorten the rallies.
Novak Djokovic, Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic 2024© Stream screenshot
At the end of the match with Medvedev, Djokovic explained that he absolutely does not feel like a superhero, because many athletes have followed a similar path after an injury. Furthermore, he revealed that much of the credit also goes to the doctor who operated on him, considered by Nole to be the true MVP of the situation.
“I wanted to give myself a chance to play Wimbledon. The doctor who operated on me is here: he is the MVP. They did a fantastic job and I thank them. Without them I wouldn’t be here playing. I’m trying to think day by day, we’ll see where I can get to. I don’t feel like Superman or a superhero; Taylor Fritz did it too. I also probably had 3/4 days more than him. He was the first person I spoke to after the injury, because he suffered something similar. He shared his journey with me and helped me a lot. I asked many people, like Stan Wawrinka and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (former soccer legend), because it’s the first time I faced a similar problem,” he explained.
Novak Djokovic© Clive Brunskill / Staff Getty Images Sport
In the post-match interview, Djokovic thanked the people who watched his match with Medvedev, explaining how the test went very well.
“I enjoyed the match today. Thank you all for coming to see this event. I can tell you that playing tennis freely is the best thing. I’m grateful that I was able to do this. Daniil is obviously one of the best players in the world. I played a couple of practice sets and I really wanted to come here to test my knee and understand how I could move. The test went well and I’m really happy. I think my team is happy. It was a very intense three weeks after the operation. I’ve put in a lot of hours to complete my rehabilitation and try to be ready for Wimbledon,” he added.
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