Novak Djokovic withdrew from Serbia’s Davis Cup first-round qualifier as a consequence of damage, the nation’s tennis federation mentioned Tuesday.
Djokovic, the world’s No. 6 participant who was set to symbolize Serbia in its assembly with Denmark in Copenhagen starting Friday by way of Monday, retired as a consequence of a hamstring damage in his Australian Open semifinal match in opposition to Alexander Zverev final week.
“I did every little thing I presumably can to principally handle the muscle tear that I had,” Djokovic mentioned final week in Melbourne. “In direction of the top of that first set, I simply began feeling increasingly more ache. It was an excessive amount of, I assume, to deal with for me in the mean time. Unlucky ending, however I attempted.”
The 24-time Grand Slam champion was booed by the gang at Melbourne Park. In response, not solely did he put each of his thumbs up earlier than leaving, however he additionally posted a photograph of an MRI taken of his left hamstring on social media. “Thought I would depart this right here for all of the sports activities damage ‘specialists’ on the market,” the publish mentioned.
Djokovic, 37, was a part of the Serbian workforce which lifted the Davis Cup in 2010 following a memorable victory over France in Belgrade.
“We’re weakened by not taking part in Novak, however we’re nonetheless going for the win. The Danes have a terrific participant in Holger Rune, however our gamers are additionally nice and I consider in my workforce,” Serbia captain Viktor Troicki mentioned.
Info from Reuters and The Related Press was used on this report.