French Open: "He always does it" - Pablo Carreno Busta on injured Djokovic
For some time on Thursday evening it looked as if Pablo Carreno Busta could cause world number one Novak Djokovic real problems - but in the end the Djoker won.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Oct 08, 2020, 01:13 pm
Djokovic looked battered on Thursday evening when things got serious. He had placed a long kinesio tape on his neck, and his left arm also seemed to give him problems again. Sentence 1? Was extremely rough with many unusual mistakes by the 17-time major champion.
In the end, however, it was like almost always: The opponent - in this case Carreno Busta - did not use the opportunities given to him and collapsed in the second round. "I had my options there, but I didn't use them," said the Spaniard after the 6: 4, 2: 6, 3: 6, 4: 6. "He started to play better. But those five, six, seven games were the worst of me in the whole match."
Did Carreno Busta irritate Djokovic's injuries, especially the stretch exercises on his arm? "That's normal, isn't it? He always does it," said the world number 18. Stretching, which Physio let come on the pitch, "he has always done that in the past few years when he has problems. Maybe it's the pressure or something that he just has to do." Djokovic then continued to play quite normally, "So I don't know whether it was pain or a mental thing. You have to ask him."
"Rafa and Novak can play this level consistently"
Djokovic himself practiced secrecy, at least for the most part. Some things happened during the warm-up, he had to deal with these issues, he explained . And because he was still in the tournament, he didn't want to reveal too much.
Carreno Busta explained that he was in the game but lost in the end - one of the differences between the top 3 and the rest. "If you look at Novak and Rafa, it's like they play this level consistently. Every week, all year, over all years." And the other players: "We can play this level too, but not for five hours or three weeks at a time."
rg2020