BREAKING NEWS:Novak Djokovic had admitted that he can’t explain why he is defying his wife’s feelings by competing at Wimbledon despite his very recent return from injury…

 

As Novak Djokovic was concentrating on his rehabilitation from a knee injury with the diligence of a specialist preparing for surgery, the Serbian was quizzed by his wife Jelena, who asked him a simple question. Why?

Why was he pushing so hard to return to Wimbledon, where he is a seven-time champion, less than three weeks after undergoing surgery on a torn meniscus which forced him to forfeit a quarterfinal at the French Open?

Why would Djokovic, who defeated Daniil Medvedev in one of the hit-and-giggle exhibitions at prestigious locations around London over the past week, not give himself more time to focus on winning the one major prize to elude him, an Olympic Gold Medal?

The eloquent Serbian provided a 444 word answer to describe what some might shorten to FOMO, though not Djokovic, who instead insisted it was more because he had an “incredible desire to play, just to compete” in the edited offering to the question below.

“It’s a very fair question that I don’t know the answer to and I do know the answer to, to be honest,” he said.

“My wife also kind of asked the same question, right? Which is normal. (You are) 37-years-old, you want to maybe have less risk and prepare yourself for the Olympic Games?

So from that perspective, I don’t have an answer to that, but I do have something that is described as a feeling of not missing out at a grand slam while I can still play and while I’m still active and at this level.

“(But) I wouldn’t call it a fear of missing out. I would just say it’s this incredible desire to play, just to compete, particularly because it is Wimbledon, the tournament that always has been a dream tournament for me when I was a kid.

“Just the thought of me missing Wimbledon was just not correct. I didn’t want to deal with that.”

set grand slam match on Tuesday against Czechs qualifier Vit Kopriva, by defending champion Carlos Alcaraz.

But it’s also individual. It’s very subjective. Everyone has a different response to the recovery, to the injury, to rehab, to exercises. (And) I didn’t have a setback.