Andy Roddick reveals surprise over Novak Djokovic’s rapid injury comeback

Kevin Palmer 07 Mar 2025 12:56 AM

Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick

When Novak Djokovic limped out of his Australian Open semi-final against Alexander Zverev in January, the conspiracy theories swirling around his latest injury were hard to ignore.

Former Grand Slam champion John McEnroe was among those who expressed his hunch that Djokovic may have used the ‘injury’ as a tactic to change the course of his Melbourne quarter-final with Carlos Alcaraz.

Djokovic was then asked about the severity of his injury in his press conferences, as some social media cynics questioned whether the injury was a major issue.

The Serbian responded by posting a picture of the muscle tear on his social media platforms, as he hit back at his doubters in typically fiesty fashion.

Yet Djokovic’s appearance in the Qatar Open and his move to play at Indian Wells in the first ATP Masters 1000 tournament of 2025 has been something of a surprise as there was an expectation the muscle tear would put the 37-year-0ld him out of action until the European clay court swing in April.

Now former world No 1 Andy Roddick has joined the debate over Djokovic’s fitness and while he tread carefully as he addressed the subject, it was clear that he was not expecting to see the Serbian back in action so soon.

“Novak looked great in Australia, he looked phenomenal beating Alcaraz, he beat [Tomas] Machac, he beat [Jiri] Lehecka, who has since gone on to play great,” said Roddick.

“He beats Alcaraz in a prime time match, he gets hurt, puts out the image of a tear, and I just assume, and I always get it wrong, because I apply what I would take most people to recover from something.

“I didn’t think we were going to see Novak, you put out an image of a tear and it’s not like I know exactly what it is, I just look and know that it’s not great.

“So I sent it to an orthopaedic friend of mine, they say normally it would be six weeks, so in my mind I’m like oh we’re not going to be seeing Novak until maybe Monte Carlo.

“We have seen him twice, we saw him in Doha and he’s playing Indian Wells.

“Good for them, you lose [Jannik] Sinner and you gain Djokovic, that’s a good offset for them to not have the No 1 player in the world.

“But I’m sure at the end of Australia, Indian Wells thought they had no chance of Novak posting for this.”

Not only is Djokovic playing at Indian Wells, but he has brought his former rival and new coach Andy Murray with him to the west coast of America.

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It suggests the motivated Serbian is eyeing up another title in the first leg of the ‘Sunshine Swing’ and if he achieves it, he would clinch his 100th career title.

Tennis365 spoke exclusively to former world No 28 Patrick McEnroe about Djokovic’s eagerness to continue in tennis a few months before his 38th birthday and he told us that the 24-time Grand Slam champion has an attention to detail that sets him apart from his rivals.

McEnroe, who is president of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, was courtside at last year’s US Open as Djokovic prepared for his latest attempt to win a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title and while he ultimately came up short in New York, his drive to succeed shone through.

“I remember last year at the US Open in the week prior to the tournament, we were doing our shows on ESPN and he was going through his return of serve in incredible detail,” McEnroe told Tennis365.

“He had his team filming him, what position his elbow was in and where his wrist was. It was really detailed stuff.

“I was looking at it and thinking this is the greatest tennis player of all-time, with the greatest return of all-time and he is still dissecting his game and trying to get better. I guess this is one of the reasons why he has been so successful. His attention to detail is like no other.

“Great players I played against like (Pete) Sampras, (Roger) Federer or my brother, they had so much natural ability and you didn’t feel they were dissecting the ins and outs of it as much as someone like Djokovic.

“Now I think the arrival of Murray in his team is his way to stay engaged in something new and that is admirable given everything he has achieved.

“It’s strange to see Murray out there as a coach to Djokovic, but it’s kind of cool as well.

“Novak has brought in some great players down the years like (Andre) Agassi, (Boris) Becker and Goran Ivanisevic and I think it’s a way to keep himself motivated.

“This is a guy who loves to talk tennis and not only dissect his opponent’s gameplan, but his own game as well.”