Novak Djokovic news: Serbian still recovering from fitness impacting illness

ATP Tour
Novak Djokovic plays a shot

World No 1 Novak Djokovic lost the Serbian Open in his home country last week as he was defeated by Andrey Rublev in the final, but the 20 time Grand Slam champions believes this was because of an illness he’s still recovering from.

He was beaten by the Russian 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-0 in just his third competition of the year and admitted he didn’t have any energy left for the third set, which was an issue he faced at the Monte Carlo Masters as well.

The 34-year-old is worried about his recent problems but he is also concentrating on the positives.

“It’s a bit worrisome, I can only assume it’s because of the illness that hit me a few weeks ago, but I have to look at the positives, I’ve won three matches from a set down, at least this bad feeling physically came in the fourth match rather than the first match in Monte Carlo,” the nine time Australian Open champion revealed.

“I didn’t like the feeling today, the whole third set was similar to the feeling I was experiencing in Monte Carlo, it never really happened like this that’s why I think it’s maybe the illness that was quite tough for me physically and health wise – I guess the recovery is taking longer for me than expected.

“It was quite severe, affecting me, affecting my body, my metabolism for a few weeks now, looking on a positive side it’s progressing in a positive way, I’m playing three setters back to back to back, but it’s a bit concerning to have this kind of feeling on court.

“Training I’m doing the things I’ve always done, I don’t have an issue with the body, things are progressing slowly but surely, again Paris is the big goal.”

The French Open gets underway from May 22 at Roland Garros, while the Italian Open which Djokovic has also been allowed to play in starts from May 2.

Novak Djokovic

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