Novak Djokovic questions his permanence at Roland Garros: ‘I don’t know if I will be able to get on the court’

He did so physically weakened, with a problem in his right knee that slowed him down for a set and a half and that, he said, puts his continuity in the tournament in question. If he does so, he will face the Norwegian Casper Ruud in a repeat of last year’s final, while the other quarter will be played by the German Alexander Zverev, fourth seed, who once again needed five sets to advance, and the Australian Alex de Minaur, which surprised the Russian Daniil Medvedev, fifth seed.

Djokovic attracted all the attention because in less than 48 hours he played ten Grand Slam sets and spent nine hours on the court. Against Cerúndolo he ended up winning 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5 and 6-3 in his longest match at Roland Garros, in which he was handicapped for a set and a half due to a knee problem that, he said, may force him to quit.

The tennis player of all records, who seeks to lift his 25 Grand Slam in Paris and thus surpass the Australian Margaret Court at the top of tennis, thus added two new ones: that of matches won and that of quarterfinals added in large tournaments .

With this, he has 370 victories in the four majors, one more than the Swiss Roger Federer, 56 more than Rafa Nadal and this Wednesday he will play in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the 59th time, one more than Federer, twelve more than Nadal.

This Tuesday he will undergo medical tests to determine if he can play the quarterfinals against Ruud, who beat the American Taylor Fritz, 7-6(8), 3-6, 6-4 and 6-2.

It will be a repeat of last year’s final, but this time between a physically weakened Djokovic, who has not won any title this season, and a Ruud who arrives with the best results on the circuit, 39 victories, five finals and 21 matches won over clay, including the Barcelona and Geneva tournaments.

“These last few weeks, I have had a little discomfort in my right knee, nothing to do with a worrying injury. I have played tournaments like this and nothing has happened until today. But in the third game of the second set, I slipped and that affected my knee,” he explained
Djokovic.

“I don’t know what will happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, or if I will be able to get on the court to play,” declared the Serbian, specifying that his injury was linked to the lack of clay on the court and added that he was able to finish the match thanks to anti-inflammatories.

“I started to feel pain and asked the physio to do something. That completely destabilized me for two sets or two and a half sets. I didn’t want to get into long exchanges. Every time (Cerúndolo) made me a dropshot or a sudden change of direction, It hurt. They gave me treatment and, after the end of the third set, I asked for even more,” he explained.
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“Today I got injured. Yes, I survived, I won the game. Great. But will I be able to play the next one? I don’t know. I don’t know the severity of my injury,” he added.