Former world No 8 John Alexander has argued that Novak Djokovic “strategically” uses medical timeouts and believes this places “a question mark over his greatness.”
The Australian accused Djokovic of faking injuries to break the concentration of opponents and said he will not believe the Serb is injured unless he “sees blood.”
Alexander, a three-time Australian Open semi-finalist, was speaking after Djokovic took a medical timeout for a wrist injury in his United Cup win against Jiri Lehecka on Tuesday.
The following day, Djokovic struggled with the issue again in his 4-6, 4-6 defeat to Alex de Minaur, where he received treatment again and looked out of sorts.
The world No 1 spoke about the injury in his press conference after losing to the Australian: “I think I have enough time to get myself in the right shape for the Australian Open, and that’s what matters the most at this point.
“I think I’ll be okay, to be honest. It did have quite an impact, you know, particularly on the forehand and serve.
“Again, I don’t want to be spending too much time talking about it and taking away credit, the victory from de Minaur. I guess we move on, and for me, with my thoughts in Melbourne.”
Speaking on the ABC Tennis Podcast, Alexander claimed Djokovic takes medical timeouts as a strategy in his matches and thinks players “routinely” abuse the rules.
“The injury timeouts — if there is a question mark over his greatness in his entire career, it’s the way he has, in many people’s minds, strategically used injury timeouts,” said the 72-year-old, who retired from tennis in 1985.
“After the loss of the second set, take an injury timeout to have his wrist massaged for some five minutes, breaking the opponent’s concentration, maybe having thoughts entering into his opponent’s head ‘gee maybe he’ll default, I’m all over for the night.’
“Then he picks himself up, wins the next five games, wins that third set 6-1. I have to say at this point I agree with many of my friends who say if they don’t see blood they don’t believe there’s an injury.
“I think when players so routinely are taking advantage of these rules and so obviously using them strategically to have an advantage tactically over their opponent, these rules need to be looked at a little bit more.
“He’s entering the Australian Open as he did last year, under the cloud of injury, maybe that’s what he needs psychologically to do his best.”