\u201cThe truth is that this year has been a big, big struggle for me with a few particular issues,\u201d the 24-time major champion said. \u201cI\u2019ve been just trying to find different ways to be at least giving myself a decent condition physically and health-wise to be on the court and compete with the player across the net.\u201d<\/p>\n
What he was most insistent about was the explanation he keeps hearing, and rejecting. \u201cPeople mix it up. It\u2019s not stamina. It\u2019s something else. More related to health,\u201d he said. He would go no further on what that something is: \u201cI don\u2019t want to be revealing what it is, but I\u2019m trying to get to the bottom of it with my team.\u201d Asked what he hoped for in the matches to come, he closed the subject with four words: \u201cThat\u2019s all I can say.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not fun when you\u2019re feeling like that on the court, because then I\u2019m investing my emotional, mental energy, and physical of course.<\/p>\n
He was more forthcoming about the toll. \u201cIt\u2019s not fun when you\u2019re feeling like that on the court, because then I\u2019m investing my emotional, mental energy, and physical of course, more on the issues that I\u2019m having rather than thinking about the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That is a precise description of a season that has come apart in its second half, through fatigue, illness and a run of physical problems involving his back, his shoulder and, in Shanghai last year, on-court vomiting. The low point came at the US Open, where he lost a five-set first-round match to Mariano Navone, his first opening-round defeat at a major in 20 years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Friday offered a rare hour of relief, which he treated as news in itself. \u201cTowards the end of the second and all third set, I felt fresher than I have in the beginning of the match,\u201d he said. \u201cThe third set today was really enjoyable from that perspective. Finally I get to play tennis without really thinking about all the other things happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contrast with his own words four days earlier is stark. Asked about his body at his pre-tournament press conference on September 28, he had said: \u201cFeeling good so far. Let\u2019s see. Obviously it\u2019s completely different when you\u2019re playing an official match comparing to the practice sets or practice sessions. But so far so good. Overall it\u2019s been really good so far with the body, the way I\u2019m feeling and playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShanghai, I still don\u2019t know\u201d<\/p>\n
None of it has changed his intention to keep playing. \u201cAt the moment I\u2019m also not really qualified yet for the race, for the Turin. I mean, this year I would like to play if I qualify. I\u2019m planning also to play Paris Bercy,\u201d he said. \u201cShanghai, I still don\u2019t know. I need to see how I feel here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The arithmetic is tight. Djokovic is 11th in the live Race to Turin, 50 points behind Taylor Fritz in tenth and 79 behind Rafael Jodar in ninth, with Daniil Medvedev eighth on 3,070 points.<\/p>\n
Extrait<\/p>\n
Novak Djokovic beat Bu Yunchaokete 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 in Beijing with his second medical timeout in two matches, then rejected the explanation that has followed him all season: \u201cIt\u2019s not stamina. It\u2019s something else. More related to health.\u201d He will not say what it is, and plans to play Paris and, if he qualifies, Turin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe truth is that this year has been a big, big struggle for me with a few particular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-913947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}