Novak Djokovic will take some time off due to a sore right wrist. And the man known as the Joker isn’t quite sure exactly how much time he will need away from the court.
After an MRI showed no structural damage, Djokovic decided to play through the injury at the Monte Carlo Open. However, it soon became obvious that the world’s number two ranked player was lacking power on his serve, and in his forehand.
Despite the limitations, Djokovic was able to reach the semi-finals before falling to Roger Federer.
“I just rest now. I cannot play tennis for some time. How long, I don’t know. It’s really not in my hands anymore,” Djokovic said. “I’m going to rest and see when it can heal 100 per cent, then I will be back on the court.”
There was some bright news, however as they did not find anything that required surgery.
“Well, the good thing is I don’t need to have a surgery. I don’t have any rupture or something like that,” Djokovic said. “I’m going to go see doctors tonight and then tomorrow again have another MRI (scan), see if anything changed in this seven days since I had the last one.”
He does not know what the exact injury is or how long it will keep him out of action.
“I heard so many things in last 10 days,” Djokovic said. “Trust me, it’s complicated.”
Djokovic felt the pain earlier this week, but after a day off on Thursday he thought he was doing better. However a two-hour long match with Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the quarterfinals on Friday re-aggravated the injury and he just didn’t feel right in facing Federer.
“Long match, long rallies, heavy balls, definitely did not help the state of my arm,” he said. “Since last night it was as it is now.”
“The pain was there every single day from 10 days ago. At some stages it was very painful,” he said. “I didn’t want to pull out (against Federer) because then people start talking different things about me and my withdraws and so forth. That was the main reason.”
The Joker’s fans will now have to hope that the six-time Grand Slam Champion can come back and get himself into form before the French Open as he looks to win his first title at Roland Garros.
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