Posted by Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday July 4, 2024
That’s a bit of a surprise Novak Djokovic plays at Wimbledon this week. A man – a 37-year-old man! – he had knee surgery on June 5th, after all.
But now that he’s playing, and two rounds into the Championships, Djokovic admits he’s having a hard time getting all hunky dory.
“I feel that’s contributing to my slow pace,” he said, after beating British wild card Jacob Fearnley in four sets on Thursday. “It is not yet where I want it to be.
“It’s kind of late to the balls that I’m usually late. That’s the part that I think comes with matches. So the longer I stay in the tournament, I think there’s more opportunity for my swing to improve. The early rounds are where I’m still a little rusty on the swing, I think that’s what I felt today, at least”
He has made incredible progress just to take his place on the court and reach the third round, but Djokovic feels his biggest progress will have to come in the coming days.
“As the tournament goes on, like I said, the more games I have, the better the opportunity to feel free to move around and get that speed, quickness, change of direction, that freedom that I really want. I’ve had it a few times today, a few times in the first game, but nothing yet. In a way, it’s expected and normal when you come back from surgery, the body is trying to understand what’s going on.”
The good news for Djokovic is that he is pain free, which means he is free to continue working to regain strength and confidence in his knee on his days off. He will face Alexei Popryin in the third round, after a rest day on Friday.
“I don’t feel pain, but I struggle to move. It’s okay,” he said. “That’s something that works. I can work on it every day. But it will have a big impact on the matches. The more games, the more of those types of situations I have, the better I will play and move.
“I didn’t feel any pain today. The first game I had one or two situations. Today there is none, which is good. My knee was responding much better on rest days, too. I didn’t have any inflammation, swelling, so that’s good. The surrounding muscles tighten and become more painful than usual because they compensate and protect the knee, which is normal.
“There’s a lot of work in that muscle. Maybe because it’s sore, and it doesn’t really give me that kind of dynamic speed and power that I need and want to have. But it’s all part of the process in the opening days. I said, the first two, three games maybe it’s something I have to accept as part of the process, hopefully I can get through and build since then.
