Former Australian Open tournament director Paul McNamee believes Novak Djokovic was indeed injured but “being the best player by a good margin” allowed him to win the Australian Open despite the injury. Djokovic, who suffered a hamstring injury during his Adelaide semifinal against Daniil Medvedev, still managed to win a record 10th Australian Open title this past January.
But throughout the tournament, there were those who were openly claiming that Djokovic was “faking an injury.” “For the record, I’ve never seen Djokovic move that badly, or go for so many winners, it’s a no brainer he was carrying an injury, but he was dedicated enough and good enough to overcome it.
How? By being the best player right now by a good margin,” McNamee explained on Twitter.
For the record, I’ve never seen Djokovic move that badly, or go for so many winners … it’s a no brainer he was carrying an injury, but he was dedicated enough and good enough to overcome it.
How? By being the best player right now by a good margin — ðï¸ Paul McNamee (@PaulFMcNamee) February 2, 2023
McNamee believes Djokovic was indeed injured
This week, Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley himself publicly stated that Djokovic was injured.
During his appearance on SEN Sportsday, Tiley claimed he saw MRI scans showing Djokovic’s 3cm hamstring tear. “A lot of the challenges around Novak is that he gets a bad rap. But at the end of the day, I don’t think anyone can question his athleticism.
This guy I did see, he had a three-centimetre tear in his hammy. Absolutely (I saw the scans), the doctors are going to tell you the truth. There was a lot of speculation about whether it was true or not, it’s hard to believe that they can do what they do with those kinds of injuries.
He’s remarkable, to deal with it extremely professionally,” Tiley told SEN Sportsday. After beating Stefanos Tsitsipas for a record 10th Australian Open title, Djokovic admitted that he was bothered by some of the comments that were made about his injury.
Also, Djokovic indicated he plans to show proof that will show everyone that he wasn’t faking anything. But most importantly for Djokovic, he was able to win his 22nd Grand Slam title.
