Full stands inspire Djokovic to play after bizarre series of events
Novak Djokovic has bizarrely taken to the court in an Adelaide exhibition event minutes after he withdrew from the match because of injury, saying the sight of full stands - a rarity in tennis the past year because of the pandemic - meant he “had to play”.
Djokovic announced just before his scheduled game against Jannik Sinner that he was pulling out due to “multi-layered” blisters on his hand. But after the first set, Djokovic stunned the crowd at Memorial Drive and replaced his replacement, Filip Krajinovic, to play.
Krajinovic had won the first set 6-3 against the young Italian Sinner, with Djokovic looking unimpeded when he replaced his fellow countryman in front of 4000 fans.
Television cameras picked up images of Djokovic’s blisters in the change of ends. The raw spot looked to be situated on the lower part of his right palm, close to where the end of the racquet handle sits.
Djokovic ended up winning the set 6-3 over Sinner, playing some typically stunning shots in the process.
“I am sorry I didn’t step on the court from the beginning. I had to do some treatment with my physio, I wasn’t feeling my best the past couple of days, I wasn’t sure how I was going to react [to coming out of quarantine],” Djokovic said post-match.
“Having an ATP Cup and Australian Open around the corner, you don’t want to risk it too much. But the emotion was so strong in me to come out on the court today, seeing these full stands I had to play.
“Thank you so much for coming out and making our day, and making our year. We didn’t play in front of this big a crowd in 12 months, so this is very special.
“I am grateful we have an opportunity to be here ... it was worth it [quarantine] because you guys made it very special for us.”
Novak Djokovic in action at Memorial Drive on Friday. Credit:Getty Images
Serena Williams will take on Naomi Osaka after the Krajinovic, Sinner and Djokovic match-up. Rafael Nadal will play Dominic Thiem and Ashleigh Barty will play Simona Halep from this evening.
The players, except for Barty, had been some of the lucky few to complete their mandatory hotel quarantine in Adelaide, with generally bigger accommodation and more people in their touring entourages. They were all released on Friday.
Williams, who spoke earlier in the day, said she took her young daughter to the zoo after being set free, while Djokovic could be seen taking a barefoot walk through the park.
“These guys and girls will definitely have a disadvantage,” Djokovic said of the 72 players who endured hard lockdown in Melbourne because of a positive COVID-19 test on their charter flight.
“They’ve done their best to do some training in their rooms, but there’s not much movement — they couldn’t hit the ball,” he said.
Williams said she was happy to be out in the open, given time inside quarantine with a child was demanding.
“Yeah, we went to the zoo because we had a calendar in our room and every day we marked an ‘X’ on the days that went by and a big circle on quarantine ending day and we promised we would take her to the zoo to see koalas and kangaroos,” she said.
In Melbourne, players continued exiting their hotel rooms - a process that begun on Thursday night and will take until Sunday. The 72 in hard lockdown endured their 15th day in quarantine on Friday and were to be released early Saturday morning.
“And the quarantine is officially over,” Polish world No.17 Iga Swiatek wrote on Twitter. “Thank you Elina Svitolina [her practise partner] for these two weeks. I enjoyed it everyday.“
French 34-year-old Richard Gasquet said on Thursday he was happy to be out in Melbourne, an “incredible city”.
“In France there are no restaurants [open] at all, so very happy to be in Australia,” he said. “Two hours of tennis was enough, [plus] I could go to gym, I could see the physio. Everything was perfect.”
Anthony is a sports reporter at The Age.