Fritz recently had Djokovic contact him because the Serb wanted to see if he could get some answers.
World No. 12 Taylor Fritz reveals Novak Djokovic messaged him after his knee injury as the record 24-time Grand Slam champion wanted to ask the American some questions since he dealt with the same injury a couple of years ago.
During a five-set French Open round-of-16 win over Francisco Cerundolo on June 3rd, Djokovic sustained a knee injury that was later diagnosed as a knee meniscus tear. After receiving the news, the 37-year-old had no doubts about what to do next as he withdrew from his French Open quarterfinal match and immediately had surgery to repair the damage in his knee.
But while the surgery was successful, the concerns were still there that Djokovic would not be ready to play Wimbledon, which starts on July 1st.
In 2021, 26-year-old Fritz also tore his knee meniscus at Roland Garris but still managed to compete at Wimbledon that summer and win two matches before losing in the third round. And since Fritz was in a similar position a couple of years ago, Djokovic felt the American was the person who could maybe give him some answers.
“I told him what it was like for me. A lot of it comes down to the inflammation and how you react,” Fritz said.
“It’s possible for Novak to play. It’s the exact same thing that I had and I played. Obviously, I wasn’t contending to win a title, I was just showing up to hopefully win a couple of rounds – but it is possible.”
Fritz: Djokovic would not go to Wimbledon for a few rounds…
After sustaining the knee injury and having surgery, Fritz was determined to get himself fit enough to play at The All England Club. As mentioned above, Fritz succeeded in his goal and he ended up beating Brandon Nakashima and Steve Johnson before losing to Alexander Zverev in the third round.
When Fritz went to Wimbledon in 2021, he was just hoping to stay healthy and potentially earn a couple of wins. But in Djokovic’s case, that certainly wouldn’t be the Serb’s goal since he always enters tournaments with the goal of winning the title.
While Fritz knows that it is possible for Djokovic to play Wimbledon, he couldn’t answer if playing the entire tournament was possible.
“When I did it I couldn’t even walk. People are different. It’s the same actual injury. It really comes down to the level of inflammation. ou pretty much have your full strength immediately. It’s more just the inflammation from the surgery. As long as you can get that down and start playing without it puffing up again, you’re actually going to be fine to play,” Fritz explained.
“I was doing three-four hours of PT, a lot of icing, trying to stick to a diet which was not going to cause extra inflammation because I was real determined to play Wimbledon. But for me it was a little bit different.
“If Novak goes to Wimbledon he wants to be there to win. Playing a whole tournament is different than me at the time going there. I was going to be a low seed anyway (31). Winning a couple of rounds was a solid result for me.”
Djokovic was warned by an ex top-10 player that rushing his comeback could incredibly cost him
At the 2017 French Open, former world No. 9 Almagro suffered a serious knee meniscus injury. When Almagro returned to action three months later, he was a shadow of himself and he was able to only play 11 more tournaments before hanging up his racket.
When asked about Djokovic’s injury, Almagro acknowledged it doesn’t look like a serious injury and a player can quickly return to action. But then, the former Spanish tennis star underlined that it is “more complicated” than just quickly recovering and returning.
“I think the difference is that I broke it and that he has a tear, but even so he has to be very careful because it seems like a simple injury but it is not,” Almagro recently said.
“I walked out of the hospital after the first operation, but when I came back I saw that things were not going well, so I had another operation after the US Open and once again at Christmas. Everything has deadlines. Mine was between two and three months, because the knee has to heal and it has to fit.
“Djokovic has to have a piece of meniscus removed during the arthroscopy, then everything has to fit well and then you have to strengthen all the muscles of the knee.
“I wouldn’t say I retired because of the injury, but after the injury. That helped, of course, but it’s true that I gained more weight, my knee began to suffer and priorities changed.”
Wimbledon is starting in less than two weeks so it shouldn’t take long before Djokovic confirms his Wimbledon status.