The 35-year-old winner of 21 Grand Slam titles admitted that the difficulties may have stemmed from a long tournament break. Djokovic had to miss the season on American concrete because he could not travel to the USA without vaccination against the coronavirus. He also came to the final grand slam of the US Open season and appeared at the Laver Cup for the first time since his triumph at Wimbledon in July.
“To be honest, my wrist has been bothering me for the last four or five days. I had it under control, but the two games on Saturday probably took its toll. It wasn’t easy today (Sunday), I couldn’t serve as fast or as accurately as I wanted . That affected the whole match,” he said after the loss to Auger-Aliassim.
Now he hopes that the problems that may have caused the overload will disappear again quickly. “It could have been the fact that I didn’t play properly for three months combined with the conditions here where the balls were very big and slow. You always have to work your wrist a lot and maybe that’s why it started to hurt,” he said.
As the main goal for the end of the season, Djokovic has set himself a start at the Tournament of Champions. This week he is expected to present himself in Tel Aviv, then in Kazakhstan and at the end of October at the Masters in Paris. Thanks to the Wimbledon triumph, his place in the final elite tournament for the eight best players of the season is certain, if he is in the elite twenty in the ATP rankings. He has currently fallen to seventh place, and is up to fifteenth in the season standings. Spaniards Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal are certain to start in Turin based on this year’s ranking.
