Djokovic beats injury to reach last eight
Fitness gamble pays off in four-set victory over Raonic Next opponent Zverev said to have similar abdominal issue
What does it take to stop world No1 Novak Djokovic at Melbourne Park? The combined efforts of Milos Raonic’s 139mph serve and a damaged abdominal muscle could not get the job done yesterday, as Djokovic forged into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the 12th time in 14 years.
Now it will be up to Alexander Zverev – who, according to Djokovic, is suffering from similar abdominal issues. “We joked around yesterday that we have kind of similar injuries,” Djokovic said. “Only he has it on the other side. He was saying that maybe we should play without serves.”
Djokovic answered many questions about the injury after the match, without ever quite defining what was wrong with him. It would take a naive opponent to read much into his words. Anyone who has watched the Serbian in the past decade knows that, whatever the state of his body, he always fights to win.
His mind-over-matter approach often echoes that of Monty Python’s Black Knight – “’Tis but a scratch”. Except that, to work properly, the parallel would require the knight to have miraculously recuperated from each blow of King Arthur’s famous sword.
“The medical team told me that it is a gamble while I’m on the court,” Djokovic said. “It could cause much more damage, but it could go in a good direction. I won’t know until I stop taking pain killers, they kind of hide what is really happening.”
There were signs during his 7-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Raonic that his forehand wing was short of its usual potency. He made a lot of errors while trying to guide the ball up the line from wide. But then, Djokovic’s forehand at 80 per cent is still better than most at 100. And his renowned backhand was as lethal as ever.
Unlike Raonic – who has won only three sets in 12 meetings with Djokovic – Zverev does at least have some positive memories to draw on. In 2018, these two faced off in the Nitto ATP Finals at London’s O2 Arena, and Zverev delivered a series of down-the-line winners to pick up the biggest title of his career to date.
The rest of the field will watch with interest, and not only because of Djokovic’s ailments. The quarterfinal is statistically his worst round here, with three defeats from 11 appearances. But the eight times he has reached the semi-finals, he has gone on to lift the title every time.