Novak Djokovic was unwilling to divulge details of the physical issues that hindered him during his opening-match loss at the Italian Open, sending off alarm bells ahead of the French Open.<\/p>\n
The Serb was upset by Croat Dino Prizmic 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in his first match since losing to Jack Draper at the Indian Wells Masters in March.<\/p>\n
Djokovic looked in control during the opening set, but quickly unravelled and allowed his opponent to dominate through the extended rallies.<\/p>\n
After going down a double break in the second set, Djokovic received pills from the tournament doctor and appeared to be suffering from stomach discomfort.<\/p>\n
The former world No 1 made sure not to take any credit away from his young opponent and refused to discuss the source of his discomfort.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope you understand I will not talk about that [physical discomfort]. I want to congratulate Dino. Deservedly the winner today,\u201d Djokovic said during his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, came in to have a match or more. Unfortunately only a match. It\u2019s all right. I\u2019m pleased at least that I fought till the end. I want to thank the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was incredible once again. I mean, the support and love that I\u2019ve been getting, it\u2019s something I don\u2019t take for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commentators call out \u2018unhappy\u2019 Coco Gauff\u2019s body language during tense Italian Open comeback<\/a><\/p>\n Jessica Pegula gives her verdict on Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s boycott claims<\/a><\/p>\n Djokovic had been forced to skip the Miami Open, Monte-Carlo Masters and Madrid Open due to an apparent shoulder injury.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not an ideal preparation, to be honest,\u201d admitted the Serb.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t recall the last time I had, in the last couple years, a preparation where I didn\u2019t have any kind of physical issues or health issues coming into the tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always something. Kind of a new reality that I have to deal with,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, it is frustrating. At the same time, it\u2019s my decision to still perform in that kind of state and conditions. It is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Last season, Djokovic also opted to play a limited schedule, but was often physically diminished towards the latter stages of tournaments.<\/p>\n Prior to his first match at the Italian Open, the 24-time Grand Slam champion emphasised that his expectations for the tournament were lower than usual given his inactivity over the previous two months.<\/p>\n \u201cI am ready enough to compete, I am not really the happiest with the level of tennis or where I am with my movement or the physical, I guess, state. But it\u2019s getting there,\u201d the six-time former champion admitted.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to be back on the tour earlier, but I couldn\u2019t. I was injured, so I had to deal with it progressively.\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic will return to the tour at the French Open, opting to skip the ATP 250 event in Geneva \u2013 a tournament he won 12 months ago.<\/p>\n The Serb will enter the Parisian Grand Slam without a clay-court match victory for the first time since 2005.<\/p>\n \u201cNo. This year, no,\u201d revealed the Serb when asked about his future plans.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll just go to Paris straight. It\u2019s the decision. It\u2019s the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic under injury cloud ahead of French Open after latest cryptic comments<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic was unwilling to divulge details of the physical issues that hindered him during his opening-match loss at the Italian Open, sending off alarm bells ahead of the French Open. The Serb was upset by Croat Dino Prizmic 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in his first match since losing to Jack Draper at the Indian Wells […]<\/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-2149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149","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=2149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}