- Title: Djokovic to miss rest of the season with elbow injury
- Date: 26th July 2017
- Summary: BELGRADE, SERBIA (JULY 26, 2017) (REUTERS) SERBIAN TENNIS PLAYER, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE, GREETING MEDIA MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) TENNIS PLAYER, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, SAYING: "After consulting various doctors and specialists from Serbia and around the world, I decided to rest and pause until the end of the season, so I won't play any official tennis tournament or competition until the end of the 2017 season." DJOKOVIC IN CAMERA VIEWFINDER (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) TENNIS PLAYER, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, SAYING: "This is an injury I've been dragging for a year and a half. It troubled me at many tournaments over the last year and a half, but it escalated over the last month and a half, especially at Wimbledon, where I unfortunately had to end the quarter final match prematurely. That was actually a sign that a decision, I may say at this moment a radical one, really had to be made." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) TENNIS PLAYER, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, SAYING: "An operation, a surgical intervention, whatever, is unnecessary. All, almost all experts, even orthopedic surgeons that I talked to do not recommend, or do not prefer surgery for me at this moment, simply because it isn't necessary." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) TENNIS PLAYER, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, SAYING: "I'll certainly play in the first week of the (2018) season… Actually, I forgot to mention is, the recovery period is long enough, from now until the first tournament of the season, there are six months, almost six months, so that is sufficient timewise for me to heal fully and be ready for the next season." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) TENNIS PLAYER, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, SAYING: "I'll use the opportunity to congratulate both Federer and Nadal on results this year, especially Federer for this Wimbledon. What he does is really deserving of all praise." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) TENNIS PLAYER, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, SAYING: "On one hand I may be lucky and on another maybe not so much because I am in their era (Nadal and Federer). In fact, it is more luck to be in their era, because it is exactly the two of them who forced me to advance myself and become the tennis player that I am today." DJOKOVIC RISING AND BOWING TO MEDIA IN GREETING
- Embargoed: 9th August 2017 16:23
- Keywords: Novak Djokovic injury tennis elbow US Open season
- Location: BELGRADE, SERBIA
- City: BELGRADE, SERBIA
- Country: Serbia
- Topics: Sport,Tennis
- Reuters ID: LVA0016RCV4FZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Serbian tennis player and twelve-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic said on Wednesday (July 26) he would miss the rest of the 2017 season to fully recover from an elbow injury which has been dogging him for the past year and a half.
He said he reached the decision after consulting "various doctors and specialists from Serbia and around the world," and that recovery will not require surgery.
He also said the injury escalated at the recent Wimbledon tournament, forcing him to pull out in the quarter final match.
Djokovic went through a disappointing 12 months on the court, losing all the grand slam titles he held simultaneously after winning the 2016 French Open and slipped from the top spot in ATP ranking at the end of 2016. The slide was accompanied with a split from his entire coaching staff.
He said he would take heart from the resurgence of both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal this year after they both took injury time-outs last year. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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