BEVERLY HILLS, February 13, (THEWILL) – World number one tennis player Novak Djokovic played with grit through a potential abdominal injury today to a hard-fought win against his American opponent, Taylor Fritz, to reach the Round of 16 in a five-setter match. Djokovic took the game 7-6(1), 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2 while in obvious pain through the third and fourth sets.
The pain became obvious in the third as the Australian Open’s top-seeded men’s player could not make any play without wincing. This was markedly different from the firm control Djokovic had of things during the first two sets that he readily won.
That changed drastically during the third set, with Djokovic up 2-1. It worsened to the point where he was forced to call a trainer to the court for treatment.
It brought flashes of the Venus Williams situation, where the veteran valiantly powered through the pain of an on-court injury and ended up with a second round loss to her younger, more physically capable opponent in heartbreaking fashion on Wednesday.
The advantage went to Fritz, who gladly took the third set with ease. Djokovic was a shadow of the player everyone knew he was the more he struggled against the pain while play continued. This continued until the end of the fourth set when Djokovic began to feel better.
His return to something of his normal self in the final set, played in an empty venue because of newly implemented COVID-19 restrictions, was apparent. The 33-year-old won his first break point since the second set with a now-recovered forehand to go up 4-2, and then took the next two games to take the match and advance to the next round.
He addressed the pain in his post-match comments: “I want to congratulate Taylor for a great fight. I am sorry that he lost the match today. I just tried to stay in there. I was hopeful that whatever was happening there [in my abdominal muscles] was going to feel better and towards the end of the fourth [set] it started to feel better.
“I know it is a tear of the muscle, so I don’t know if I will manage to recover from that in less than two days. I don’t know if I am going to step out on the court or not. I am just very proud of this achievement tonight.”
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The Serb’s next match is against Canada’s Milos Raonic on Sunday. Whether Djokovic can actually
take the court for that will be determined by the player and his crew with concerning doubts hanging on that decision.
If he can forge ahead on Sunday, he will remain in contention to continue his hunt for a ninth record-extending Australian Open title, which would make the world number one player the second man to win nine or more Grand Slams at a single event.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
