Forced to withdraw from the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros, the Serbian lambasted the clay court.
Roland-Garros lost Rafael Nadal in the first round, the French Open has now lost Novak Djokovic, forced to withdraw from Casper Ruud due to a knee injury. Hit during his new extended match against the Argentinian Cerundolo in the round of 16 on Sunday June 3, the Serb managed to find the necessary resources to go to the end of the match, but at what cost?
At a press conference, the Serb expressed his skepticism about his presence, explaining that he had had discomfort in his knee for several days and that he was not sure whether to continue the adventure. Tuesday, the sentence fell, Novak Djokovic announces his package. Could his injury have been avoided? Still at a press conference, the former world number 1, now dethroned by Jannik Sinner, pointed out the poor conditions of the Philippe Chatrier court. “I spoke with the chair umpire, saying: Would it be possible to sweep the field, maybe not at every change, but maybe when we change sides, every two or three times? And maybe not wait for the end of a set. She said she would check, she spoke to the supervisor of the people who take care of the grounds. The answer was no. The weather of the last few days has affected the court, and has affected the upper layers of the clay, he estimated. I don’t know what they did exactly. I think they removed some of the clay. So, there was very little, almost no clay on the surface. And because of the drier, warmer conditions, the terrain has become very slippery. I hurt my knee because of that, because I slipped, I slipped a lot.
According to the Serb, better sweeping was needed. “When you move during the rallies, you move the clay,” he stressed. “There are places where there is no more surface. You are only on a hard base. I try to understand the process, and see how it would damage the field to sweep it, since we do it with our feet, and before throwing the ball, we often clean with our shoe.”
In the meantime, the tournament is now without its last winner, but good news, there will be a brand new king at Roland-Garros this year since all the players still present have never won the Grand Slam tournament.