Novak Djokovic has clarified the reason he was frustrated with the tournament supervisor and grounds people at Roland Garros during his five-set win over Francisco Cerundolo.
Djokovic suffered a nasty fall at one point in the fourth-round match and hurt his right knee. He complained to the tournament supervisor about the state of the court, as he felt it was slippery, and requested that it be watered thoroughly.
The Serbian was able to complete the match after ingesting some painkillers to curb the pain. He fought back from the brink of defeat to win 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in four hours and 40 minutes.
During the match, Djokovic sarcastically applauded the work done by the tournament as he became annoyed that no action was being taken despite his vocal concerns about the court.
However, shortly after securing a record 370th Grand Slam match win, the 37-year-old told reporters during his post-match press conference that he was not looking to pick fights with the groundspeople but asked for the reasons why his request to sweep the courts was rejected.
“I just asked for an explanation. I’m not pointing fingers at someone, blaming whoever, a group or an individual. I’m just trying to understand the whole process. What is the damage to the court?”
“We sweep it anyway, we do it with our feet before we serve. I know a lot of players do it. They either clean the line or the space in front where they are going to bounce the ball. I just don’t see how that’s damaging to the court.”
“I actually see that’s helpful to us players at least bringing a little bit more clay, evening the clay behind the court and just reducing, slightly, the possibility of slipping because when you’re moving during the point you’re removing the clay and then all of a sudden some places you have absolutely no clay it’s just concrete basically.”
The injury became much more serious than initially imagined, and Djokovic withdrew from the tournament ahead of his quarterfinal match against Casper Ruud. He has since undergone successful surgery and is expected to miss Wimbledon.
