{"id":95158,"date":"2026-01-05T14:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=95158"},"modified":"2026-01-05T14:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:15:11","slug":"djokovics-season-hits-early-bump-adelaide-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/05\/djokovics-season-hits-early-bump-adelaide-withdrawal\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic\u2019s 2026 Season Hits Early Bump With Adelaide Withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">Former World No.1 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/11\/10\/novak-djokovic-2025-season-recap\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Novak Djokovic<\/a> has withdrawn from what would have been his first event of the 2026 season, the Adelaide International, scheduled for next week, as he revealed in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DjokovicFan_\/status\/2008221635078500859?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">statement on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 10-time Australian Open champion had been <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/12\/24\/where-is-novak-djokovic-returning-to-action-in-2026-season-launch-details\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">planning to get some much-needed match practice ahead<\/a> of the first Major of the year, continuing a routine he has followed in recent seasons. However, Djokovic will now miss the event due to physical issues, as outlined in his statement.<\/p>\n<h2>Djokovic Withdraws From Adelaide International<\/h2>\n<h3>Issued Statement<\/h3>\n<p>The full statement from Djokovic was:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo all my fans in Adelaide, unfortunately I\u2019m not quite physically ready to compete in the Adelaide International next week. It\u2019s personally very disappointing to me as I have such great memories of winning the title there two years ago. I was really excited about returning as it truly felt like playing at home. My focus is now on my preparation for the Australian Open and I look forward to arriving in Melbourne soon and seeing all the tennis fans in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Adelaide tournament was meant to serve as Djokovic\u2019s gradual return to competition following a longer-than-usual offseason, after the Serbian once again <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/11\/08\/novak-djokovic-skips-atp-finals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">opted not to take part in the Nitto ATP Finals<\/a>. Instead, Djokovic will now head straight into best-of-five-set competition at Melbourne Park, without any official warm-up matches.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"eqw7TrGnRzVFJjQFxVdxVw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2245729459\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'eqw7TrGnRzVFJjQFxVdxVw',sig:'jKmuiHG1wZka5Q3oqdaXXkJdwk7Fox9WYs6IYV4m3kg=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'2245729459',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>An Eventful Offseason Off the Court<\/h3>\n<p>Despite the setback, Djokovic\u2019s offseason has been anything but quiet.<\/p>\n<p>In early December, he was spotted at a Formula 1 event, where he spoke about \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/12\/03\/djokovic-sends-message-ahead-of-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Rebuilding the Machine<\/a>\u201d and emphasized his focus on reaching peak physical condition ahead of the new season. He was later seen working with a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/12\/16\/novak-djokovic-regain-physical-edge\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">new addition to his team<\/a>, Dr. Mark Kovacs, a performance and recovery specialist, signaling a renewed emphasis on longevity and physical preparation.<\/p>\n<p>Adding further intrigue, Djokovic announced just yesterday that he is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/04\/novak-djokovic-steps-away-from-ptpa\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">no longer part of the Professional Tennis Players Association<\/a> (PTPA), an organization he originally co-founded. The decision reportedly came after differences in views regarding the group\u2019s recent activities.<\/p>\n<p>With plenty of drama unfolding off the court, tennis fans will now have to wait patiently for the return of the all-time leader in Grand Slam titles, as what could be the final chapter of a historic career prepares to unfold at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey &#8211; Imagn Images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former World No.1 Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from what would have been his first event of the 2026 season, the Adelaide International, scheduled for next week, as he revealed in a statement on social media. The 10-time Australian Open champion had been planning to get some much-needed match practice ahead of the first Major of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5608,"featured_media":90391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[10273,259,205,22],"class_list":["post-95158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-atp","tag-adelaide-international","tag-atp-tour","tag-australian-open","tag-novak-djokovic"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95158"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95175,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95158\/revisions\/95175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}