Don’t get us wrong. We think Novak’s a real champion. However, his latest comments about playing pain free for the first time in years didn’t bode too well with us.
“I actually started playing pain-free in the last two days. It’s quite refreshing because everything else had pain involved. The last few days have been first in a long, long time that I could actually be focused on the game rather than have something in my mind and be worried about whether I am going to have pain or not,” Djokovic was quoted as saying by AFP.
Truth is, almost all players play with some kind of pain, considering Tennis is such a physically demanding sport. The results in the last 2 years have been so because your form has dipped, not because you were in extreme pain. Also, it’s not like we didn’t see Novak perform at his peak during this time. He reached the finals of the Rome Masters just last year, and you can’t achieve that kind of a feat if you’re not fit to play. You also reached the quarter finals of the Australian Open, which again is a space reserved for the very elite of tennis players. From there onwards, the game is of fine margins. Your opponent Hyeon Chung over there too had to battle blisters on his feet, which looked horrific after his game against Roger Federer.
“I am not yet at my best. Every day is a process for me and it’s an opportunity to learn, to grow and get better after the two years of injury and trying to figure out ways how to play pain free. I have had to modify a lot of things in my game to accept it. When I made this intervention, obviously it’s pretty invasive and unfortunately in the end it had to be done. It also carries certain consequences but right now, I’m not playing with the pain which is the most important thing. All I can do now is to try to embrace the process every day,” he added in the same interview.
Really, if Djoker could please stand up and let his racquet do the talking, it’ll be great. No need to give excuses. He’ll be among the greatest of all time even if he loses every game from hereon.
