Australian Open: Novak Djokovic suffers from injury

Very weakened this Thursday with a hip injury that left him disabled for ten days, Novak Djokovic managed to beat France’s Enzo Cuco (world No. 191) in four sets (6-1, 6-7 (5 /7), 6-2, 6-0) in the second round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Thus, by clenching his teeth to contain the pain emanating from his left thigh, the Serb qualified. He hopes to equal Rafael Nadal’s record of 22 Grand Slam titles in Australia. His on-court behavior, with medical timeouts, multiple grimaces, race interruptions, apparent attempts to cut points, is causing concern ahead of meeting Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (28th) in the next round.

“I’m worried, and I have reason to be,” he later admitted himself, not wanting to go into details about the nature of the injury. Two years ago, the Serbian champion tore his stomach in the third round against American Taylor Fritz. He held on to the end and won the tournament for the ninth time. “This time it’s different and I don’t know what will happen,” Nole also said.

In fact, despite the flattering score in the last two sets, he let his nervousness show when he suddenly asked the referee to send off a spectator who was too noisy for his taste. “There is a guy drunk as a pig who provokes me from the first moment. What are you going to do ? Why don’t you ask security to let him out? Djokovic asked the referee irritably when the score was 2-0 in the fourth set. Four troublemakers were actually removed during the next side change.

A premature elimination would have been a blow to tournament favorites who lost their No. 2 seed to Norway’s Kasper Ruud on Thursday, the day after Rafael Nadal’s elimination. 3rd in the world, finalist of the last US Open, scored four match points before finally losing to American Jenson Brooksby (39th), also in four sets (6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (4/7) . 6-2). Now without Nadal, and also in the absence of Carlos Alcaraz, the Grand Slam tournament is deprived of the top three in the world from the third round for the first time since 2002 (Hewitt, Kuerten, Agassi).