There is also a happy ending for the tennis star in his second five-set thriller in Paris. The defending champion limps, he staggers – but he does not fall. The knee injury is a cause for concern, however.
Novak Djokovic apparently cannot do it without drama: Two days after his nightly third-round record match, the Serbian tennis star has literally struggled into the quarterfinals at the French Open.
Handicapped by a knee injury and visibly dissatisfied with himself and the world, the defending champion once again delivered a nerve-wracking five-set thriller, in which he prevailed against the Argentine outsider Francisco Cerúndolo 6:1, 5:7, 3:6, 7:5, 6:3 after 4 hours and 39 minutes.
He had been lying on the ground at times and actually only had one explanation for his comeback after being 1:2 sets behind, said the 37-year-old during the interview on the court with a “big thank you” to the audience: “It was you!”
With his 370th victory in a Grand Slam match, he surpassed the Swiss tennis icon Roger Federer in this statistic. The Serb (59) also broke the record previously shared with Federer (58) for the number of quarter-finals in the four major tournaments. In Paris, he reached the round of the best eight for the 15th time in a row – but the 24-time Grand Slam tournament winner was not in title form against Cerúndolo. His physical condition in particular raises questions.
Djokovic, who only finished his third-round match on Saturday against the Italian Lorenzo Musetti after 3 a.m. and four and a half hours, initially appeared to have recovered well from the exertions. At the beginning of the second set, however, the 24-time Grand Slam tournament winner requested a medical timeout to have his right knee treated. He revealed the reason in a later complaint to the head referee about the amount of sand on the court: “I sprained my knee. I’m slipping and sliding the whole time.”
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Source: Stern
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