PARIS — Same court. Same issue. Or something like it.
Seven weeks after tearing his meniscus so badly he needed surgery and pulled out of his quarterfinal at the French Open, Novak Djokovic suffered more knee problems on Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros, this time during his quarterfinal match against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Djokovic took medication and had the help of adrenaline (and, it appeared, a hefty dose of psychological scarring for the Greek) to get him through the match, escaping deficits of 4-0 and 5-3, 40-0 in the second set to win 6-3, 7-5 and keep his hopes of an elusive gold medal alive, but it came at a price.
How steep that price is won’t be known until Djokovic undergoes further tests ahead of his semifinal match, which is scheduled for Friday evening against Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, but he sounded seriously worried following the win over Tsitsipas.
“I’m concerned about the state of the knee. I cannot give you exact information because I don’t have it,” he said.
“I have to go and examine the knee now with my physio and with the medical staff of the tournament and then let’s see, I’m playing at seven tomorrow which gives me slightly more time, but I’m hoping I can be ready.”
Djokovic said he felt a sharp pain in his right knee at the start of the second set that stayed with him for three or four games. “After that, it started releasing,” he said. “Obviously the anti-inflammatory pills that I got also helped, but you know, that effect is going to fade away tomorrow morning.”
The comments were eerily similar to those he made after his fourth-round win over Francisco Cerundolo at the French Open. He was not heard from again for two days, until he posted a picture of himself on crutches following an operation on the meniscus in his right knee.
The arthroscopic procedure used a “duckbill punch” tool and shaver to excise and smooth the frayed edges of the torn portion of the meniscus, rather than conducting a full repair, which involves stitching the meniscus back together and requires the patient to spend multiple weeks afterwards in a knee brace.
Djokovic returned to competition a little more than three weeks later and made the finals of Wimbledon, but has been playing with a sleeve around his knee ever since and has not regained the sublime movement that has long characterized his play, Djokovic is 37, so it’s not clear that he ever will.
Djokovic said he did not know whether he slipped or what caused the injury.
“I’ll pray to God for everything to be OK,” he said.
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(Photo: Igor Kralj / Pixsell / MB Media / Getty Images)
