Novak Djokovic will be at Wimbledon this year as he will travel to London early next week, but he still has to decide if he will participate in this year’s grass-court Grand Slam as his recovery from knee surgery continues.
The tennis great returned to action this week – barely two weeks after he underwent an operation to repair the torn meniscus he suffered in his right knee at the French Open.
He was initially expected to miss Wimbledon as recovery time is anything from three weeks to six weeks, but the 24-time Grand Slam winner insisted he was determined to return to action quickly, stating: “My love for this sport is strong and the desire to compete at the highest level is what keeps me going.
“I’m going to do my best to be healthy and fit to return to the court as soon as possible.”
He has also provided several “progress” updates on social media, which indicates he is winning his battle to be fit.
And it has now been confirmed that he has decided to travel to the United Kingdom and is expected to arrive at Wimbledon on Monday, but – according to the BBC – “the seven-time champion does not yet know if he will be able to compete after undergoing knee surgery”.
On Thursday Djokovic posted a video in which he does several fitness drills – on and off the court – with the caption “Tennis I missed you! We keep building day by day . Mood socks activated…”
New video footage of the tennis great on the practice court emerged on Saturday and he is seen serving at almost normal speed with no signs of the knee bothering him.
Earlier this week American Taylor Fritz revealed that “it is possible” for Djokovic to play at Wimbledon as he underwent a similar procedure two years ago and was fit within a couple of weeks.
“A lot of it comes down to the inflammation and how you react,” he said.
“It’s possible for Novak to play. It’s the exact same thing that I had and I played. Obviously, I wasn’t contending to win a title, I was just showing up to hopefully win a couple of rounds – but it is possible.”
The world No 12 added: “You pretty much have your full strength immediately. It’s more just the inflammation from the surgery. As long as you can get that down and start playing without it puffing up again, you’re actually going to be fine to play.
“I was doing three-four hours of PT, a lot of icing, trying to stick to a diet which was not going to cause extra inflammation because I was real determined to play Wimbledon.
“But for me, it was a little bit different. If Novak goes to Wimbledon he wants to be there to win.”
Leave a Reply