Set to lose No. 1 ranking to Sinner
PARIS: Novak Djokovic, who slipped and stumbled times without number during his Roland Garros fourth-round match on Monday, has torn the medial meniscus on his right knee.
The tear, picked up by a MRI scan he had late on Tuesday afternoon, forced the top-seed and defending champion to withdraw from the French Open. The 24time major winner was to play the seventh-seeded Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Djokovic was covered in clay, courtesy the many tumbles, en route to a record-breaking 370th Grand Slam victory 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the fourth round against Francisco Cerundolo late on Monday evening. "In the third game of the second set, when I slipped, it affected the knee, I started feeling the pain," Djokovic said.
"It disrupted my play. For the next two sets, I didn't want to stay in the rally too long. Every time he would make drop shots or changed directions, I was not comfortable (chasing)." "At one point I didn't know whether I should continue," he said. "I got medication then, and after the third set, I asked for more medication. That (dose) kicked in after 30 to 45 minutes, which was just about the end of the fourth set. That's when things started to improve for me. I started to feel less limitations in my movement."
Djokovic raised the slippery condition of the court several times with the chair umpire. "I felt today that with the sun coming out after long days of rain, it affected the court, particularly the upper layers of the clay," Djokovic said. "I don't know what exactly they have done, it seemed like some of the clay was removed, so there was very little, almost no clay on the court today. Then when the sun is out it affects the clay in such a way that it becomes slippery."
