{"id":410697,"date":"2024-07-09T05:38:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T05:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=410697"},"modified":"2024-07-09T08:07:56","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T08:07:56","slug":"claims-djokovic-spray-a-tactic-amid-injury-suspicion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=410697","title":{"rendered":"Claims Djokovic spray a 'tactic' amid injury suspicion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former player and respected tennis commentator Mark Petchey fears Novak Djokovic<\/a> could be carrying a second injury as the Serbian star continues to recover from a meniscus injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 24-time grand slam champion had surgery on his knee after an injury caused him to withdraw from Roland-Garros<\/a> ahead of the quarter finals last month.<\/p>\n

Djokovic said he could not "see myself holding back<\/a>" ahead of Wimbledon<\/a>, with his All England Club campaign currently earning him a spot in the quarter finals, where he will face Australia's Alex de Minaur on Wednesday night (AEST).<\/p>\n

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However, his strong run has not hidden a concern for Petchey, who believes the \ufeffstar looked troubled by an abdominal injury.<\/p>\n

"I'm not sure if Novak's not carrying a little bit of an injury," Petchey said on Stan Sport's Grand Slam Daily<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffApart from the knee which is the obvious one, a little bit of (concern) on the ab.<\/p>\n

"He looked a little concerned halfway through that second set, talking up to his physio, holding his (abs)."<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

Djokovic was clutching at his abs on multiple occasions throughout the match, while also partaking in deep breathing exercises between serves.<\/p>\n

The \ufeff37-year-old has been known to utilise various breathing exercises during his matches, however, the star has yet to confirm Petchey's observations.<\/p>\n

Djokovic defeated 15th-seeded Holger Rune 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the quarter finals before launching a bizarre outburst at fans<\/a>, who he thought were against him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\ufeffPetchey, \ufeffwho previously coached Silvija Talaja and Andy Murray into the top 50 in the world rankings, believed the "strange" outburst was a tactic used to fuel Djokovic's motivation.<\/p>\n

"It was strange but honestly, having worked with someone like Andy Murray and seeing their mentality – at times they need something a little bit different" he said.<\/p>\n

"We've seen Andy at times walk around like he's been hit by a sniper, come off, and then you say 'what was wrong with that?' and he would say, 'there's nothing wrong.'<\/p>\n

"It's almost as though \ufeffthey need something to drive them.<\/p>\n

"I don't know whether that was something Novak needed (against Rune).<\/p>\n

Watch Wimbledon 2024 live and exclusively free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Plus centre court in 4K UHD on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the home of grand slam tennis.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"I was sitting in the crowd and it was very obvious that it was "Ruuuuuune" that they were saying rather than booing.<\/p>\n

"He obviously got into his head that they (the crowd) were disrespecting him.<\/p>\n

"That is the sort of fire he has shown over the years against better players like Roger (Federer) and Rafa (Nadal) that he needed to perform at his best.<\/p>\n

"It was a little spicy in the \ufeff(arena) but we love a bit of that.<\/p>\n

"I don't think he was that disrespectful to the crowd but it will be interesting when he takes on Alex (de Minaur<\/a>) because we are going to get a very quick temperature gaze of what the crowd and the public think (of Djokovic) at Wimbledon when he steps out onto the court."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1810511355214254458?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Petchey backed the ninth-seeded Aussie to advance to the semi finals.<\/p>\n

"I think it's Alex's time\ufeff, just as it was at the United Cup at the start of the year," Petchey said.<\/p>\n

"I do like his chances."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former player and respected tennis commentator Mark Petchey fears Novak Djokovic could be carrying a second injury as the Serbian star continues to recover from […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":410699,"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\/410697"}],"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=410697"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410702,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410697\/revisions\/410702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/410699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=410697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=410697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=410697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}