Novak Djokovic has clarified that he has used the off-season to \u2018rebuild\u2019 his body and that his preparation for the Australian Open has been going \u2018very well\u2019 despite a physical \u2018setback.\u2019<\/p>\n
The world No 4 is seeking to make more history in Melbourne by becoming the first person \u2013 male or female \u2013 to win 25 Grand Slam singles titles.<\/p>\n
Djokovic<\/a> was meant to have competed at the ATP 250 in Adelaide prior to the Australian Open action, but was forced to withdraw due to not being \u2018quite physically ready\u2019 for the event.<\/p>\n \u201cTo all my fans in Adelaide. Unfortunately I\u2019m not quite physically ready to compete in the Adelaide International next week,\u201d he stated on Instagram, announcing the decision.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s personally very disappointing to me as I have such great memories of winning the title there [three] years ago. I was really excited about returning as it truly felt like playing at home.<\/p>\n \u201cMy focus is now on my preparation for the Australian Open and I look forward to arriving in Melbourne soon and seeing all the tennis fans in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n Physical issues have become more frequent over the last 18 months for the Serb, something which he was renowned for avoiding.<\/p>\n He underwent knee surgery in the summer of 2024, before retiring from his semi-final against Alexander Zverev at the latest edition of Australian Open.<\/p>\n At Wimbledon, the former world No 1 suffered a nasty slip during his last-eight match against Flavio Cobolli, impeding his ability to perform at his best in the subsequent round.<\/p>\n On that occasion, Djokovic argued that the discomfort was also impacted by overall \u2018wear and tear\u2019, rather than a freak accident.<\/p>\n However, he was able to reassure fans that the issue preventing him from playing Adelaide was just a \u2018little setback\u2019, but that his recovery has been \u2018going very well.\u2019<\/p>\n Emma Raducanu lambasts Australian Open scheduling, and admits it may hamper chances \u2013 \u2018Doesn\u2019t make sense\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic lays down Australian Open gauntlet and claims \u2018I can beat anybody\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI ended up the season in the first week of November, so it\u2019s been a while since I played any competition, any official tournament,\u201d Djokovic later commented during the press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I took some time off, and obviously took more time to rebuild my body, because I understand that in the last couple of years, that\u2019s what changed the most for me is it takes more time to rebuild, and it also takes more time to reset or recover.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, unfortunately, I had a little setback that prevented me to compete at Adelaide tournament. That\u2019s why I didn\u2019t go there physically, but it\u2019s been going on very well so far here.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously every day there is something here and there for me and I guess for each one of us, but generally I feel good and look forward to competing.\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic will get his Australian Open campaign underway against Spaniard Pedro Martinez, with the pair having never met on the professional tour.<\/p>\n The Serb\u2019s seeding allowed him to avoid facing Jannik Sinner prior to the semi-final and Carlos Alcaraz before the showpiece match.<\/p>\n Indeed, whilst he hasn\u2019t lifted a Grand Slam since the 2023 US Open, Djokovic is not yet willing to give retirement much thought and is satisfied by continuing to play nonetheless.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been asked a lot about obviously when is the, you know, end date going to come for me, but, you know, I don\u2019t want to talk or think about it yet, because I\u2019m here, I\u2019m competing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen that arrives and kind of becomes ripe in my head, I\u2019ll share it with you, and then we can all discuss on the farewell tour.<\/p>\n \u201cBut right now I\u2019m still No. 4 in the world, still competing at the highest level, and I feel like there is no need to draw the attention to that discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic clarifies injury rumours after suffering pre-Australian Open \u2018setback\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic has clarified that he has used the off-season to \u2018rebuild\u2019 his body and that his preparation for the Australian Open has been going \u2018very well\u2019 despite a physical \u2018setback.\u2019 The world No 4 is seeking to make more history in Melbourne by becoming the first person \u2013 male or female \u2013 to win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Latest Tennis News<\/h2>\n
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