Novak Djokovic is racing against time to be fit for the Wimbledon 2024 Championships. The 7-time champion’s injury has intrigued fans and the media, more so since he has been spotted training at the Wimbledon Village in the last couple of days. While speculations and assumptions are galore on social media, former player Greg Rusedski posted something interesting on X, which might disappoint the Serb’s fans.
Back in the 90s and early 2000s, Rusedski was known as the best tennis player from the United Kingdom. Being in London currently, he said that he saw Novak Djokovic practicing, which was great. However, the Brit has claimed that after seeing the former World No.1’s intensity, he looks to be more concerned about where he stands currently in terms of fitness since he is not 100% ready to play full, high intensity best-of-5 matches.
I will be very surprised if Novak plays Wimbledon. Great to see him on the court practising ,but feel this is more of seeing where he is at and getting good preparation until he is 100% .
— Greg Rusedski (@GregRusedski1) June 25, 2024
It seems as if Novak Djokovic is using the atmosphere around him at Wimbledon to give himself the best chance to recover faster. Testing his skill on grass while training is better than doing it on a hard or clay court. One theory is if Djokovic felt so under-confident as claimed by people like Greg Rusedski, then he would not have bothered to travel to London from Montenegro.
However, earlier this year, Novak Djokovic irked many tennis fans by opting out of the Miami Open and the Madrid Open pretty much at the last minute, despite being in both the cities around the time the tournaments were held. Djokovic kept the mystery of his participation status alive, until he officially announced later that he wished to give himself some rest due to a hectic season ahead.
Otherwise, Greg Rusedski is one person who has had a lot of positive things to say about Novak Djokovic. Rusedski is in talking terms with the 24-time Grand Slam champion’s new agent, Mark Madden and revealed something interesting he found out, from his recent conversation with him.
“Novak Djokovic Wants to Be the Tom Brady of Tennis”: Greg Rusedski
Greg Rusedski has kept himself involved in the sport and ahead of Wimbledon 2024, he was spotted interacting in a segment with the Grand Slam’s American broadcasters, Tennis Channel. Rusedski opened up about Djokovic and said that age and a few poor tournaments are not going to deter the Serb as he wants his legacy to be the same as his good friend, Tom Brady has in the NFL.
Interestingly, both Novak Djokovic and Tom Brady are completely vegan and are renowned to set the highest standards of fitness in their respective sports. The fact that Djokovic loves the travel involved in tennis and the hunger to win, still makes him formidable in the Brit’s eyes. Rusedski added that after his talk with Madden, he was convinced that Djokovic’s meniscus injury is not ‘that serious’ and it was bad luck that the Serb could not capitalise on his momentum at the French Open recently.
“I’ve had some conversations with his (Djokovic’s) agent and he wants to play a lot longer, he wants to be the Tom Brady of tennis,” said the 1997 US Open finalist.
“And a meniscus injury is not serious, it’s just bad luck. And he was starting to play well at the French, I would not discount Novak. If Novak wants to play for another two, three, four years — whatever it is — don’t write him off.
“This is not a serious injury and he’s the most disciplined athlete I’ve ever seen. I think he’s probably the greatest athlete I’ve ever seen in my life, I mean he is that good as a player.
“Everybody’s writing him off because it’s five months he hasn’t played great and he’s got an injury now. I’m not writing him off at all, I think he’s gonna be back with a vengeance.
“I think if the hunger’s there and he still enjoys travelling and he can get the family on the road with him a little bit more, watch out.”
Rusedski has called Djokovic the GOAT and should the Serb go on to win the Wimbledon 2024, the Brit would be more than happy to be proven wrong about his latest tweet and right about his comments above.
