Novak Djokovic battled against the odds to win the Australian Open despite having an injury which would have forced most players to pull out of the tournament, according to his coach.
Goran Ivanisevic admits he was surprised by how well the Serbian overcame his injury woes at the first Grand Slam of the season. Djokovic entered the tournament with a hamstring issue and was seen wearing strapping on his leg throughout most of his matches. Despite the problem, he still managed to seal the title after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets on Sunday. In doing so he has become the first man to win the Australian Open for a tenth time and has equalled Rafael Nadal’s all-time Grand Slam record of 22 titles won.
“I don’t say 100%, but 97% of the players, on Saturday when you get results of the MRI, you go straight to the referee office and pull out of the tournament. But not him,” said Ivanisevic.
“He is from another space. His brain is working differently.’
“He gave everything. 77 therapies a day. Every day was kind of better and better. I didn’t expect this. Honestly, I was shocked.”
Ivanisevic, who won the 2001 Wimbledon title, joined Djokovic’s team in the summer of 2019 and has remained a prominent member ever since. During this period, the Serbian has won seven out of his 22 major titles.
Yet Ivanisevic admits that he is still stunned by the abilities of the tennis star who will return to world No.1 on Monday for the first time since June.
“You learn all the time. He’s getting crazier and crazier. It’s no end of the field of craziness. In a positive way, I mean,” he commented.
“I mean, the guy is unbelievable. I don’t know how to describe it in words. I thought I saw everything, and then you see this. I’m probably going to see something else (in the future).”
So how did Djokovic manage to turn the odds around? Speaking to reporters during his press conference, he described each match as a case of survival. In this year’s tournament, he dropped only one set in seven matches played, which was against France’s Enzo Couacaud in the second round.
“It required an enormous mental energy really to stay present, to stay focused, to take things day by day, and really see how far I can go,” said Djokovic.
“If I turn back the time two and a half weeks ago, I wasn’t really liking my chance in this tournament with the way I felt with my leg. Then it was just a matter of surviving every single match, trying to take it to the next round.”
It is not the first time he has overcome adversity to triumph at the Australian Open. In 2021 he claimed the title despite suffering a tear in his abdominal oblique muscle in the third round of the tournament.
At the age of 35, Djokovic is without a doubt entering into the later stages of his career but there are no signs of retirement. According to the current ATP top 100, only four players are older than him with one of those being rival Nadal. The two tennis giants have won 16 out of the last 19 major events between them.
As for how much longer Djokovic can keep going on the Tour, Ivanisevic has given his estimate.
“Definitely two, three more years. The way he’s taking care of his body, the way he approaches everything, the food, it’s amazing. It’s unbelievable the level.” He said.
Djokovic is the third-oldest man to win the Australian Open after Ken Rosewall and Roger Federer.
