It was a sad sight on Court number one, as a devastated Novak Djokovic walked up to the chair umpire, shaking his head and extending a sorry looking handshake, before throwing the towel in.
Djokovic was a set and a break down when he decided to retire. He was forced to give up because of a shoulder injury that had troubled him in the 3rd set of his 4th round match against Mannarino.
Playing two days in a row didn’t do Djokovic much good as well. He was forced to play his 4th round game yesterday, as his match was postponed following the marathon match between Nadal and Muller.
Djokovic was extremely unhappy about the fact that the organisers didn’t take the decision of shifting his match to the vacant Centre Court, and that he was forced to warm up and cool down all through the final set(between Rafa and Muller).
24 hours wasn’t good enough time for Djokovic to recover from that shoulder injury that he was feeling against Mannarino, and he ultimately had to give in.
To his credit, he did stay in the first set, all the way through. He lost 7-2 in the tie-break and that was when the shoulder injury seemed a little more apparent.
Berdych secured a break early in the second set and that was that for Djokovic. He hit a backhand wide and started walking towards the umpire to announce retirement
