World No.1 Novak Djokovic admits that he is still struggling with a neck injury after coming through a tightly contested two-set encounter at the Western and Southern Open.
The top seed disposed of Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis 7-6(2), 6-4, despite dropping his serve three times during the match. Overall, Djokovic hit 17 winners and 17 unforced errors as he won 63% of his service points. The victory extends his unbeaten run on the ATP Tour this year to 19 consecutive matches, although this is the first one he has played since the break due to COVID-19.
Despite sealing a spot in the third round of the tournament, there are still concerns for the Djokovic camp surrounding his ongoing injury. On Sunday the Serbian was forced to pull out of the doubles draw after injuring his neck. During his clash with Berankis, Djokovic at times struggled with his serve and took an injury time out to have some treatment on the affected area.
“Well, it has bothered me… I made so many double faults, and he knew exactly where I’m going to serve. There were not many options for me because just the awkward situation I was in,” he explained.
”But I managed somehow with the great help of Clay, ATP physiotherapist, who did his best to make sure I feel better. I tried to take one game at a time. He was striking the ball really well. He was playing super fast.”
The issue comes less than a week before the US Open where Djokovic will be bidding to claim his 18th Grand Slam title to close in on Roger Federer’s all-time record. Although he is confident that his recovery is ‘heading into the right direction.’
“It’s been now four days, but it has been moving in the right direction,” he said ”Obviously it’s not yet where I would like it to be, but it’s heading in that direction.
“Hopefully it will not react with, I guess, big inflammation after tonight’s match. I don’t know how it’s going to react. Hopefully not that bad. We’re going to do everything possible with physiotherapists, and then let’s see what tomorrow brings.”
Next up for Djokovic in New York will be a clash with Tennys Sandgren. He leads their head-to-head 2-0 after winning both of their matches back in 2018 but did drop a set against the American at the US Open that year. Sandgren outlasted Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-6(5), in his latest match.
Asked if the absence of a crowd could boost his chances against Djokovic, Sandgren played down its significance. Due to the pandemic this year’s tournament, as well as the US Open, is taking place behind closed doors for the first time in history.
“We are used to playing with nobody and we are used to not having that outside stimuli of people watching you, that extra pressure of eyes on you, which is very tangible,” atptour.com quoted Sandgren as saying. “At the same time, those guys are also magicians at getting themselves mentally up and prepared for matches. While I think it might be easier for someone like me, someone like Novak is extremely gifted at playing mental games with himself. I don’t think he is really going to have a problem getting up for these matches.”
Djokovic is set to return to the court on Tuesday.
