{"id":359617,"date":"2024-01-13T06:05:14","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T07:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=359617"},"modified":"2024-01-13T08:02:01","modified_gmt":"2024-01-13T08:02:01","slug":"novak-reveals-bizarre-hugging-trees-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=359617","title":{"rendered":"Novak reveals bizarre 'hugging trees' preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic<\/a> \ufeffsays the wrist he injured on the cusp of the Australian Open<\/a> is doing well as he eyes his first-round match against a Croatian teen.<\/p>\n

The Serbian champion, who's hunting a record-extending 11th Australian Open title, has also revealed\ufeff a bizarre way in which he sharpens his mind for the Melbourne major.<\/p>\n

Djokovic injured his right wrist on January 2<\/a> during the United Cup in Sydney, at which he was defeated by Australia's Alex de Minaur<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Novak<\/p>\n

But the 24-time grand slam champion said he had made pleasing progress with the injury en route to his first-round Australian Open match against 18-year-old qualifier Dino Prizmic, who he'll face at Rod Laver Arena on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

"My wrist is good. I've had time from my last match against de Minaur in the United Cup to my first match here to recover. I've been training well, practice sessions have been pain-free so far," Djokovic told reporters on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

"So it's good\ufeff, it's all looking good, but let's see how it goes."<\/p>\n

Djokovic won his first grand slam title at Melbourne Park in 2008, defeating French giant Jo Wilfred-Tsonga in the final.<\/p>\n

In 2019, he overtook Australian great Roy Emerson as the most successful Australian Open men's champion.<\/p>\n

Djokovic has also won four of the last five Australian Open tournaments. In his absence due to his deportation in 2022<\/a>, Rafael Nadal came up trumps in an incredible comeback win over Daniil Medvedev in the final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 Australian Open live and exclusive on Nine,<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and ad-free on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"I'm not superstitious, but I do obviously like to visit certain places that have brought me luck and made me feel good," Djokovic said when asked about his Australian Open preparation.<\/p>\n

"For example, \ufeff[the] Botanic Gardens just nearby \u2014 it's a wonderful park where I like to spend time and just be by myself in nature … hugging trees and climbing trees and stuff. I love to do that, so I've done that for the last 15 years, and whether that's a secret of success here in Australia or not, I don't know, but it has definitely made me feel good."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic \ufeffsays the wrist he injured on the cusp of the Australian Open is doing well as he eyes his first-round match against a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":359619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=359617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359620,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359617\/revisions\/359620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/359619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=359617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=359617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=359617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}