On the eve of The Championships, Novak Djokovic’s new coach, Andre Agassi, said his protege didn’t need a break.
On Day 9, Djokovic revealed he had aggravated a long-term elbow injury that had bothered him for the past 18 months during his quarter-final. Trailing Czech Tomas Berdych by a set and a break, the former top-ranked Serb was forced to throw in the towel.
“Now I am paying interest for all these years as a professional,” Djokovic said during the Serbian part of his press conference. “My body is giving me signals.”
He wouldn’t rule out surgery and hinted he could take an extended break to let the injury heal.
“I'm just going to talk with specialists, as I have done in the last year or so, try to figure out what's the best way to treat it and to solve it, to find a long-term solution,” Djokovic said. “Obviously short-term it's probably rest [that] is most appropriate. We will see.”
His participation in the US Open at the end of August, the season’s final Slam where Djokovic is a two-time champion, appears uncertain.
After losing his Roland Garros title in a lacklustre quarter-final defeat to Austrian Dominic Thiem last month, former players including Mats Wilander said the 12-time Grand Slam winner should take some time off because his years of domination appeared to have taken a toll on him mentally.
It looked like Djokovic was heeding that advice when he decided not to play either at Queen’s Club in London or in Halle, Germany. Then came a surprise turn of events, with Djokovic accepting a wild card into Eastbourne. Playing the week before a Grand Slam event was something he hadn’t done for 11 years.
Now I am paying interest for all these years as a professional. My body is giving me signals
When he won the title, looking more relaxed and happy to be on a tennis court than he had done for months, it initially looked like his gamble had paid off. But his body paid the price at Wimbledon.
“The intensity and the level of pain was not decreasing,” Djokovic said. “It was only increasing as the days went by. Actually, I started feeling it already more or less at the beginning of the tournament.”
On the Friday before The Championships, Agassi had dismissed any talk of a career break for Djokovic, with whom he started working in Paris after the Serb parted ways with his entire coaching team.
“What’s really beneficial is being clear,” former Wimbledon winner Agassi told the Reuters news agency. “A break isn’t beneficial if you’re not giving yourself a break because you know you want to be doing something else.
“Playing isn’t beneficial when you’re spent and you feel like you need a break and your team’s pushing you to play. So does he need a break? No, I think he’s ready and he has clear objectives.”
Agassi, a former world No.1, overcame a mid-career slump in his late 20s to win five of his eight Slams before retiring at the age of 36. Djokovic’s mind may be up to it, his body most definitely no longer is.
The 30-year-old right-hander will take heart from Roger Federer, who took six months off last year to recover from knee surgery. Refreshed, the 35-year-old Swiss stunned the tennis world when he won his 18th Grand Slam event at the Australian Open in January.
“Novak's not missed any Slams basically,” Federer said after beating Milos Raonic of Canada in straight sets to move to the semi-finals. “I don't want to say sooner or later these things unfortunately happen, but he's played a lot of tennis in recent years. For him to be hurt at some stage is only normal.”
Federer was the only one of the so-called Big Four who skipped the clay court season to let his mind and body rest. With Rafael Nadal, Djokovic and defending champion Andy Murray now all out of Wimbledon before the semi-finals, the Swiss is the last of that group - now all over 30 - still standing.
Everything changes when you enter your fourth decade, according to Federer.
“You've got to look back and think of how much tennis have I played, how much rest did I give my body over the years, how much training have I done, did I do enough, did I overdo it or not enough?” he said.
He also had a warning for Djokovic.
“The problem is you can only play with a certain injury for a certain amount of time, because what you don't want happening is that it becomes chronic,” Federer said.
“Then even a surgery can't help you that much any more. That's why I'm happy I've had to take my first surgery really only at 34, 35 years old. That was a blessing.”
