Novak Djokovic has admitted it is becoming \u201cmore challenging\u201d for him to take care of his body at this stage of his career after he lost on his return from injury at the Qatar Open.<\/p>\n
The tennis icon was upset 7-6(4), 6-2 by world No 35 Matteo Berrettini in the opening round of the ATP 500 tournament in Doha.<\/p>\n
The Serbian was unable to break Berrettini\u2019s serve as the Italian delivered one of the finest performances of his career.<\/p>\n
Berrettini, a former world No 6, had not beaten Djokovic in four previous encounters \u2014 including a showdown in the 2021 Wimbledon final.<\/p>\n
Djokovic<\/a>\u00a0was playing his first singles match since a hamstring tear forced him to retire from his Australian Open semi-final match with Alexander Zverev last month.<\/p>\n The 37-year-old sustained the injury early in his four-set quarter-final victory over Carlos Alcaraz at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n The 24-time Grand Slam winner\u2019s ability to avoid and recover from injuries has been remarkable for much of his career, but he has dealt with more physical issues in recent seasons.<\/p>\n Last year, Djokovic tore the medial meniscus in his right knee at the French Open but managed to recuperate from surgery in time to play at Wimbledon \u2014 where he reached the final. He then secured the Olympic gold medal in his next tournament.<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic upset at Qatar Open as he suffers unwanted seven-year first<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic reveals his toughest opponent and the two best moments of his career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n In his press conference after losing to Berrettini, Djokovic\u00a0discussed how he is still trying to improve as a player and also\u00a0addressed his recent increase in injuries.<\/p>\n \u201cI am trying to improve my game, as everybody else. But my game is not going to change now drastically,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to play serve and volley, maybe every once in a while, but my game is what it is, the core is going to be the same. I\u2019m going to try to adjust depending on the surface that I play on and so forth.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are more injuries. Things are not the same as 10 years ago, 15 years ago. I still try to take care of my body on a daily basis, and it\u2019s more challenging now, no doubt. I still try to do my very best, given the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n Berrettini gave his reaction to Djokovic describing his performance as a masterclass.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he told me at the net at the end,\u201d the 28-year-old said. \u201cBut everyone was screaming and I was trying to tell him that I had finally beaten him (laughs). We spoke in Italian and I was very happy.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I heard him say that, but at the time I didn\u2019t quite understand. It\u2019s obviously a huge honour when someone like him says that about your game. I really think it was one of the best matches of my career. I felt good from the first point.<\/p>\n \u201cBut against Novak, you know you\u2019re going to have to maintain that level for potentially two or three hours. I had prepared for it and I\u2019m very proud of my performance. The more the match went on, the more I felt good about it. In general, it\u2019s a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT:\u00a0Novak Djokovic makes \u2018no excuse\u2019 admission about Qatar Open defeat<\/a> The post Novak Djokovic makes \u2018more challenging\u2019 confession as he addresses suffering \u2018more injuries\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic has admitted it is becoming \u201cmore challenging\u201d for him to take care of his body at this stage of his career after he lost on his return from injury at the Qatar Open. The tennis icon was upset 7-6(4), 6-2 by world No 35 Matteo Berrettini in the opening round of the ATP […]<\/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-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","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=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Novak Djokovic News<\/h2>\n
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