Injured Djokovic retires against Berdych – highlights & report

Posted: Jul 12, 2017

Wimbledon 2017 on the BBC
Venue: All England Club Dates: 3-16 July Starts: 11:30 BST
Live: Coverage across BBC TV, BBC Radio and BBC Sport website with further coverage on Red Button, Connected TVs and app. Click for full times.

Novak Djokovic is out of Wimbledon after retiring injured during his quarter-final against Tomas Berdych.

The former world number one, who would have regained top spot by winning the title, was down 7-6 (7-2) 2-0 when he withdrew with an elbow injury.

Djokovic, 30, had treatment on a right shoulder injury during his last-16 win over Adrian Mannarino and needed further attention against Berdych.

The Serb said he would consider whether surgery was needed to fix the injury.

“I haven’t felt this much pain since I’ve had this injury,” said Djokovic.

“It’s not the shoulder, it’s the elbow that has kept bothering me for over a year and a half.

“I was able, for 30 minutes, to play with some pain that was bearable, but the serve and forehand were shots where I could feel it the most. After that, there was really no sense [in continuing].”

Murray knocked out of Wimbledon – watch & read
Federer cruises into semi-finals – watch & read
British hope Konta faces five-time champion Williams

Czech world number 15 Berdych, the 2010 Wimbledon runner-up, will face Roger Federer in the semi-final.

Djokovic had been set to play his last-16 match against Mannarino on Monday but it was delayed as Rafael Nadal’s match against Gilles Muller went to five sets and tournament officials decided to not move the Serb on to the available Centre Court.

He beat Mannarino 6-2 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in Tuesday’s opening match but was the only men’s quarter-finalist not to have a day’s rest between rounds.

Against Berdych, Djokovic called a medical time-out after losing the first-set tie-break and received attention on his right arm before he withdrew.

“It is unfortunate I had to finish Wimbledon in this way. If someone feels bad, it is me,” added Djokovic.

“I spent about two hours, two and a half hours, on the table today in between the warm-up and match, trying to do everything I could to make me fit.

“I’m going to talk with specialists, as I have done in the last year, to try to figure out what’s the best way to treat it and find a long-term solution.

“The level of pain was not decreasing, it was only increasing as the days went by. Unfortunately, today was the worst day. Probably the fact I played yesterday, days adding up, it wasn’t helping at all.”

Analysis

John Lloyd, former GB Davis Cup captain on BBC Two

We called it pretty quickly – he couldn’t serve above 115 mph from the start. Once Berdych hung in there and won the first set, Novak knew that there was no chance.

Boris Becker, three-time Wimbledon champion on BBC Two

Most players have niggles and pains; nobody in the second week is 100% healthy. But only Djokovic can say how his body is. He knows whether he can play on or not.

It is the right decision. Murray and Djokovic were dominant last year but they are nowhere near that level now. It is a gruelling schedule and everybody else will put in that extra 10% to beat you.