Novak Djokovic on Torn Meniscus and Withdrawing from French Open | 2024 Wimbledon Quarterfinal

swagen Des great to see you back in the semi-finals here at Wimbledon thanks for spending some time with us thank you thank you for inviting me always we love to have you here uh listen you've been to the semi-finals a whole bunch of times here how would you rate your level so far this tournament uh well I think actually the last couple of matches I played were were great I started off uh Wimbledon with uh you know convincing first round win the second round I I kind of struggled um you know to find that right level or the movement that uh I really needed but then I think towards the end of the the the third round match there was again a close one and then the entire fourth round that I played against run was was fantastic the way I felt on the court the way I was striking the ball so uh I'm excited you know excited to to keep on playing to be in another semi-finals uh obviously uh not not great for the tournament and not never never you know agreed to uh to go through with the withdraw of uh of a player and I wish Alex best in terms of recovery I hope he can come back to the court uh we saw that in the last Point actually he injured himself I you know I was actually watching the replay of that point in his last match trying to understand where he injured himself but you know and some people were guessing whether it was an ankle or a hip or a knee and I think in the end it was a hip so it's uh yeah it's it's it's terrible it's the the biggest enemy of of an athlete you know injury um I wish him speedy recovery he was playing he was in a red hot form it would be a really tough match for both of us if we played today but it is what it is and I'm moving on to semis speaking of withdrawals in tournaments uh the last major that unfortunately happened to you then you had surgery and here we are in mid July and you're in your 49th I did not missp speak 49th major semi-final everything you've achieved where do you rate this physical recovery uh well right at the top maybe two three uh in terms of uh the time that was required for me to come back to the desired level I mean it was the first time that I have faced uh this kind of particular knee injury I never had a major knee injury and um I unfortunately injured myself mid-match in the fourth round in rolling garas and you know I torn my Meniscus and a part of it had to be taken out which which was obviously not where it's supposed to be and um I decided along with my team members to go to have a arthoscopic uh uh intervention uh literally a day after or two days after after that fourth round match and the reason why is because you know I was um actually you know advising myself with all the orthopedic uh um doctors around the world world that I know and and my team knows and they all said the same thing they were for once unanimous in their opinion that um it has to be operated and that that the recovery time uh will be much quicker than if I would actually not operate it or if I try to sue it up alog together I mean that's what they explain to me at least I mean I didn't know much about meniscus before before this happened to me and uh I actually spoke to Taylor Fritz I I already told this story but he was very very kind to uh to share his experience his journey because he had a pretty much exactly the same situation three years ago he injured himself in Roland Garis he he had a surgery same arthoscopic intervention they took out piece of his Menace because 21 days later he was playing in in Wimbledon first round so I think when I heard from him that there is a really good chance if everything goes well if the swelling is down and the rehab process is respected that and if of course subject to knee responding well that there's a very good chance that I'll make it for Wimbledon and so I think that gave me a lot of uh confidence to to go for it really and I I wasn't to be honest with you thinking about Wimbledon a few days after surgery I was just thinking okay how can I get out of the crutches and then start walking you know properly uh I had a great help from my Physio physiotherapists and uh the uh rehab knee specialist that was also with me for the last three and a half weeks he was doing two three times a day work with me and that helped a lot you know it helped a lot and just having people that understand what you need to do with the knee and we were taking it day by day and then I said okay if I was running already 10 days before Wimbledon or 14 days before Wimbledon you know I might as well come here start hitting and see how it goes so um yeah I'm just uh very pleased to be here listen it's remarkable I mean you do things that nobody else can even dream of and here you are doing it here absolutely inspiring uh Novak I'm not going to ask you about uh certain people in the crowd saying things but there's one fan of yours in the crowd throughout this tournament who who was reading a book during one of your matches what are your thoughts on on one of your biggest fans reading a book about unicorns during a match unicorns of course of course I was um I was very happy when I saw that um and sad at the same time because my tennis doesn't make her excited so much so she needs to grab a book and entertain herself no but it's uh it's incredible to have them um with me and to see them grow uh and and get them to be part of you know this journey and have them at the age where they can understand what's going on and you know my my son is nine my daughter is six and they were actually both playing tennis today with me on the court and it was it was Joy it's I'm you know my heart is obviously filled with love when I when I see them and it also allows me to you know kind of enjoy myself off the court a bit more because you know when you're getting to the latter stages of grand slam the tension the pressure the stress is growing so you know everything is about recovery or training or getting ready for the next match for the next challenge and then you you feel the tension Rising the whole team around you so having them here just gives me a great balance say more there when you take your kids to work so to speak when your kids are watching what do you hope they are seeing that's a very good question um well I i' I've out of the two parents I'm the one that is responsible for their activities Sports a healthy lifestyle I just and I want them I've always sometimes exactly she's rolling her eyes right now as I'm speaking because I I I keep on in a way reminding them of how important it is to be active just do Sports you know I mean whether it's tennis or whatever it is just be active be out there and uh so I I I try to take them on uh with me on tennis every day you know even if it's the match day I want them to be uh you know here with me and because they are very rare occasions I mean there maybe just few tournaments a year where I can experience what I've been experiencing here with them and they love Wimbledon because they have you know the indoor courts the orangi practice courts particularly in the second week they have some free Courts for maybe 10 minutes 30 minutes 60 minutes where they can hit uh there's a lot of families a lot of children from other players who are coming in so that you know for them it's it's it's also a great experience it's a great Camp exactly uh and and it's fun you know because I get to have quality time with them with with my wife as well and then they still have friends on the side