Novak Djokovic schedule 'a joke' at French Open and 'a black eye' for tennis after injury, says John McEnroe
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ByOli Gent
Updated 06/06/2024 at 13:41 GMT
John McEnroe has hit out at the French Open's scheduling issues that played a significant role in Novak Djokovic, the defending men's champion, withdrawing from the tournament with injury. The current world No. 1 finished his five-set third-round match against Lorenzo Musetti past 3am local time, before another marathon match against Francisco Cerundolo in the last 16, where he injured his knee.
'In trouble' - Djokovic suffers injury as McEnroe reacts to 'absurd' schedule
Eurosport expert John McEnroe has criticised the French Open’s scheduling following Novak Djokovic’s withdrawal from the tournament with a knee injury.
The Serbian top seed pulled out of the men’s singles draw a day after his marathon five-set comeback victory over Francisco Cerundolo in the last 16, where Djokovic injured his knee while sliding.
Previously, the current world No. 1 had to come through a 3am finish to his third-round encounter with Lorenzo Musetti after the Italian forced him into five sets, and Grigor Dimitrov’s third-round match against Zizou Bergs was moved from Court 14 to Court Philippe-Chatrier as the tournament tried to catch up for lost time due to significant rain delays.
However, Djokovic did not have much time to fully recover from his first five-setter, and he went on to tear his meniscus during his last-16 match, which McEnroe labelled “very unfortunate for the tournament, and for tennis in general”.
“It was a joke that they put him out at 10:30pm [against Musetti],” McEnroe said. “It was a great match, and then it goes to three in the morning. Absurd.
“Then to have to come back and go through another marathon match. If this doesn't change the mentality of the majors about this type of schedule, I don't know what would, because he's the number one player in the world.
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'Don't know what will happen' - Djokovic admits knee injury could force him out of French Open
“You got the top seed, arguably the best player that ever lived getting hurt, and that contributed to it. Having to play till three in the morning, you can't tell me that didn't have an effect on his body, his system, or his recovery.
"What time did he go to bed? Seven. How much sleep did he get? You could go on and on, and this is not the first time.
“He's an all-time great, maybe the greatest, and it's a shame. Obviously, we are all hoping that he plays [at Wimbledon]. It would be a shame if it exacerbated an already bad situation by having him withdraw.”
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McEnroe, a finalist at Roland-Garros, continued by saying that Djokovic’s injury as a result of the scheduling was “a bad look” and “a black eye for our sport”.
“That's not what is good for our sport; that's a bad look,” the American said.
“Does LeBron James play the NBA finals at three in the morning? There's [been] a lot of rain, and they were trying to catch up, but they didn't need to put Grigor Dimitrov on that court. That just put everything off.
“I don't know what they were thinking, other than they just wanted to get through. What did they think, that the other guy [Bergs] would just roll over and not try, or something?
“So the whole thing was, it's a black eye for our sport, truthfully.”
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