“Get Rusty A Little”

Posted by Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday July 4, 2024

That's a bit of a surprise Novak Djokovic plays at Wimbledon this week. A man – a 37-year-old man! – he had knee surgery on June 5th, after all.

But now that he's playing, and two rounds into the Championships, Djokovic admits he's having a hard time getting all hunky dory.

“I feel that that affects my walking a little bit faster,” he said. “It has not reached where I want it to be. The latter kind of balls that I usually don't drink at. That's the part I think comes with a match. So the longer I stay in competition, I think the more likely my moves will improve. The earlier rounds were when I was still a little rusty on the move, I think. That's what I was hearing today, at least”

He has made incredible progress just to take his place on the field and reach the third round, but he feels that his biggest progress will have to come in the coming days.

“As the tournament goes on, like I said, the more games I have, the better the opportunity to feel free to move around and get that speed, quickness, change of direction, that freedom that I really want. I've had it a few times today, a few times in the first game, but nothing yet. In a way, it's expected and normal when you come back from surgery, the body is trying to understand what's going on.”

The good news for Djokovic is that he is pain free, which means he is free to continue working to regain strength and confidence in his knee on his days off. He will face Alexei Popryin in the third round, after a rest day on Friday.

“I don't feel pain, but I struggle to move. It's okay,” he said. “That's something that works. I can work on it every day. But it will have a big impact on the matches. The more games, the more of those types of situations I have, the better I will play and move.

“I didn't feel any pain today. The first game I had one or two situations. Today there is none, which is good. My knee was responding much better on rest days, too. I didn't have any inflammation, swelling, so that's good. The surrounding muscles tighten and become more painful than usual because they compensate and protect the knee, which is normal. That's a lot of work for those muscles. Maybe because they hurt, they don't really give me that kind of dynamic speed and power that I need and want to have. But it's all part of the process on opening days. Like I said, the first two, three games are probably something I have to accept as part of the process. Hopefully I can get through and build from there.”