ROLAND GARROS

June 3, 2024

Novak Djokovic

Press Conference

N. DJOKOVIC/F. Cerundolo

6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Novak in English.

Q. Novak, how are you feeling coming into the match this afternoon? Saw you had some taping on your knee when you arrived at Roland Garros. Was that a problem before the match?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, for the last couple weeks I have had, I would say, slight discomfort, I would call it that way, in the right knee, but I haven't had an injury that would be concerning me at all. I was playing a few tournaments with it, and no issues until today.

Of course late finish from few nights ago didn't help the sleeping, the biorhythm, and recovery, but I actually felt great coming into the match, as good as I could under the circumstances and played really well first set. Then in the third game of the second set, I slipped, one of the many times that I slipped and fell today. That affected the knee.

Then, you know, I started feeling the pain and asked for the physio treatment and the medical timeout and tried to take care of it. It did disrupt me definitely in play. For two sets, two sets and a half, I didn't want to stay in the rally too long. Every time he would make sudden dropshots or change directions, I would not be feeling comfortable to do the running.

At one point I didn't know, to be honest, whether I should continue or not with what's happening. I got the medications, and then after the third set was done, I asked for more medications, and I got them.

That was the maximum dose that kicked in, as I heard now from doctor after 30 to 45 minutes, which was just about the time kind of end of the fourth when things started to really improve for me. I started to feel less limitations in my movement.

Basically the whole fifth set was almost without any pain, which is great, you know. But then the effect of the medications will not last for too long, so I'll see. I guess we'll do some more screening and tests and checkups tomorrow, as well.

We have done some with doctor right now after the match. Some positive news but also some maybe concerns, so let's see tomorrow. I can't tell you more about it at the moment.

I'm glad that I was able to play fifth set and last three, four games of the fourth without feeling that pain that I felt for two-and-a-half sets. But yeah, you never know what will happen tomorrow.

I have had situations in my career where I had, you know, muscle tears and different things and played with that during the tournament. I'm not the only one. Many players have played with different injuries. There are medications, anti-inflammatories, stuff that you can do.

The adrenaline, of course, that kicks in, that helps you go through the tournament. Sometimes is a match or two, sometimes the entire tournament. Good thing about the slam is that you have a day between that will allow hopefully the healing process to happen more efficiently for me.

That's it. I don't know what will happen tomorrow or after tomorrow if I'll be able to step out on the court and play. You know, I hope so. Let's see what happens.

Q. What were the issues with the court? Was that something that you felt from the start of the match, kind of as soon as you came out?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Look, the conditions or the kind of weather circumstances we had this year are quite unusual. You know, we had lots of rain, very damp, muddy, really heavy conditions on the court that affects the court, affects the humidity and everything, that affects the surface that is a live surface, you know, as grass. But on grass you can't do much. On hard court it is as it is.

But clay is the surface that you can somehow affect with some grounds work and grounds care. When it comes to the quality of the clay courts, Roland Garros is by far the best in the world, there is no doubt.

I know grounds people for many years and have had great relationship with them, and actually talked with one of them today when I was warming up on the center court a few hours before my match about, you know, sweeping the court, you know, every, whatever, second, third changeover, you know, just giving it a little bit of an extra care. Because I felt today with sun coming out thankfully after long days of rain, it has affected the court, has affected particularly the upper layers of the clay.

I don't know what exactly they have done. It seems like that some of the clay was removed, so there was very little, almost no clay on the court today. Because of the drier conditions and sun and warmer conditions, it affects the clay in such a way that, you know, it becomes very slippery.

So the injury that I had today with the knee happened exactly because of that, because I slipped, and I slide a lot. I mean, everyone slides on clay, but I slipped way too many times. That is quite unusual, you know. Of course I do, because I have an aggressive kind of movement, dynamic change of directions. It's normal for me, I've slipped and fell on the clay many times in my life, and on grass as well, but this was just too many times, you know, today.

I've had a conversation with the chair umpire where I just asked, you know, would it be possible to sweep the court? I understand not every changeover but every second, every third changeover. You know, not to wait for a set to finish but to have just slightly more frequent care of the court.

She said she'll check, and she spoke to the grounds people or supervisor, supervisor to grounds people, and the answer was no. I asked for supervisor to have a conversation, and I just asked for explanation.

Look, I'm not pointing fingers, that it's someone is blaming whoever, a group or an individual of why that's the case. I'm just trying to understand in this whole process what is the damage to the court to sweep it -- anyway, we do it with our feet, you know. Before you serve, you know, a lot of players do it, they either clean the line or the space in front where you're going to bounce the ball or behind. I just don't see how that's damaging to the court.

I actually see that that's helpful to us players at least bringing a little bit more clay, evening clay behind the court, and just, you know, reducing slightly the possibility of slipping, you know.

Because when you're moving during the point, you're removing the clay. Then all of a sudden, some places you have absolutely no clay. It's just concrete, basically.

So, yeah, I know that currently, you know, some of my team members are also having a conversation with the Roland Garros people, just trying to understand. I'm just trying to understand why it is, you know, so complicating to do that and why it is that the answer is constantly no. I don't get it.

We cannot treat these conditions as common conditions. They are not common. You know, we had rain. We had really bad weather for days, even a week. So that has affected the court itself.

So I'm sure that the grounds people have their hands full. I know they're working very hard. I'm not saying they are doing it the wrong way. Absolutely not. They are doing their best.

I'm just trying to understand, you know, if a player is feeling a certain way and then, you know, what else do we need to wait for for that to happen? I mean, today I injured myself. Yes, I survived. I won the match. Great. But will I be able to play next one? I don't know. I don't know the severity of the injury. But could have this injury be prevented? Possibly, if, you know, if there was just a little bit more of a frequent care of the court during the set.

That's basically all I ask for.

Q. Can you pinpoint when the thought occurred to you you might need to stop and how long that lasted and why did you keep playing?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, right away. I mean, literally when I had that moment of when injury occurred, had some physio, medical timeout, and the very next game I saw that the care did not help so much.

The physio did his best, of course, but, you know, in that moment maybe you can't solve it. You can maybe help maintain it to a certain level to where you're going to allow me to play, which is what Alejandro, physio from ATP did, and I thank him for that, but I saw that I was not able to do the 100%. I was not able to change directions the way I wanted. I was not able to run on many of the dropshots he played. And he saw it. Francisco saw it, and so he played a lot of dropshots where most of them, I just looked at and that's it. Didn't move.

Look, I know it's also, for him, it's not easy to play against somebody that is not really moving at his best for two sets and then all of a sudden then he starts moving great and playing great. So, you know, of course I understand that that's not a perfect, ideal situation for him. But for me, what happened is what I told you before. I can repeat it again.

The reason why I continued is because I really, you know, wanted to see whether an extra anti-inflammatories and medications that I'm gonna take are going to kick in and actually help me, you know, reduce some of the limitations, which is what happened.

After the third set was done, I asked for doctor to come and give me something extra. He said, Okay, this is it. That's all I can give you right now and I can't give you more.

It was enough. After 45 minutes it kicked in, and it was enough to enable me to play my best at the end of the match.

Q. You had basically one day and a half to prepare this match. Curious about the way you managed your post-Musetti match time between sleep, care, tennis? What did you do?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I played petanque yesterday. That was as hard of an activity as I had yesterday in Bois de Boulogne with my friends.

Yeah, just really easy day. I slept most of that day yesterday, and did a lot of physio work and some of the water work as well, some of the exercises in the water that always helps reduce the strain on the joints and muscles, and tried to get a decent sleep again, which I did.

So as I said, you know, I came to the court, I warmed up well, first set great. I didn't feel that the last match has affected me so much that I'm unable to, you know, run or to sustain -- the level I played for over four-and-a-half hours, it was longer than the match against Musetti. So physically I'm okay. Thankfully I was able to recover quickly.

But, you know, this is something that happened. It's unplanned and unpredictable injury, and yeah, so I have to now, I guess, rethink or reprogram with my medical team and physio the recovery time and focus it mostly on the knee.

Q. Was there any kind of, like, trauma that happened in the last few weeks or is it just something that developed through wear and tear that happens when you're turning 37 and now 37?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Thanks for reminding me (smiling).

Q. I think you might have forgotten in the fifth set (smiling).

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yeah, I think it was more the probably the wear and tear. But again, I'm saying, you know, I did carry it with me for a couple of weeks, but I did not feel that it was affecting me on the court. Meaning as soon as I would warm up, I would feel fine. I would run, I would do splits, slides, whatever. You know, it wasn't any kind of an issue when I start to play.

When I was cold, that's where I feel the discomfort, et cetera. So today, again, we did put an extra care and attention to the knee in the last few days, my physio and I. It's like we, you know, predicted something might happen, so yeah, that helped, but I don't know.

I mean, today is just one of these things when you're on the court, you slip, do a bad move, you're in an unstable, unbalanced position. I guess that's probably a weaker part of my body that has had some few weeks of history, I guess, that reacted, you know.

That's all I know for now.