LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 03: Novak Djokovic (L) of Serbia greet with John McEnroe during the Centre ... [+]
Tennis legend John McEnroe blasted French Open organizers for conditions that led to Novak Djokovic’s knee injury.
The 37-year-old Serbian suffered a meniscus tear in his right knee during his five-set fourth-round victory over Francisco Cerundolo on Monday, withdrew from the tournament a day later and underwent surgery on Wednesday that he said “went well.”
Djokovic is expected to be sidelined at least three weeks and is doubtful for Wimbledon, but could potentially return for the Paris Olympics starting July 27. The withdrawal also cost him the world No. 1 ranking, which now belongs to Italian Jannik Sinner starting Monday.
McEnroe blamed the tournament’s scheduling decision involving Djokovic’s third-round match with Lorenzo Musetti on Saturday for the injury. In an effort to keep the tournament's scheduling on the right track following a messy first week due to rain, organizers decided to shift an unfinished third-round match between Grigor Dimitrov and Zizou Bergs to Court Philippe Chatrier.
The match got underway at around 8 p.m. local time in Paris, which was when the Djokovic-Musetti match was originally supposed to start on the same court. This led to an almost three-hour delay to Djokovic’s match. The 24-time Grand Slam winner eventually sealed his thrilling five-set comeback win over the Italian after 3 a.m. on Sunday.
"Putting Djokovic, 37, on the court at 10:30 p.m. (against Musetti in the third round), without knowing how long his match would last, was a huge mistake on the part of the organization,” McEnroe told Le Figaro. “The weather was very bad, and they were in a difficult situation. I understand that they wanted to catch up, but there were other solutions to finish the other match (Bergs vs Dimitrov).”
PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 03: Novak Djokovic of Serbia receives treatment on his bench during his match ... [+]
McEnroe, who is broadcasting the tournament for NBC and Peacock, said it was not the proper way to treat a player of Djokovic’s stature.
"Novak had been bothered by his knee for a few weeks,” he said. “He had to fall asleep at 7 a.m. and come back to play a day and a half later (against Cerundolo in the fourth round). It's a challenge for anyone. He had to fight five sets again, it's too much to ask. Even for Novak. If we can't say for sure, it's one of the reasons why he injured his knee. In any case, you don't treat a player, and even less the best in the world, that way.”
Coco Gauff, the top-ranked American woman who will face world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals Thursday, agreed with McEnroe’s analysis.
"I think it (Djokovic's injury and subsequent withdrawal) probably came just from the late start (against Musetti),” she said after her quarterfinal win over Ons Jabeur. “And it was unfortunate that he had to, you know, the matches went five sets back to back. So I think it was just a combination of those two things.”
With Djokovic and Rafael Nadal now out of the tournament, it will mark just the second time in 20 years that the men’s final will not include either legend. The last occasion was when Roger Federer won his lone Roland Garros title in 2009 over Robin Soderling.
