McEnroe is Concerned About Novak Djokovic’s Fitness

Written by: Staff on 2nd December 2011

McEnroe is Concerned About Novak Djokovic’s Fitness

Serbia's Novak Djokovic makes a return to Thomas Berdych of the Czech Republic during their Group A tennis match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals held in the O2 Arena, London, England, 21 November 2011. EPA/FOTOSPORTS/ROGER PARKER |

John McEnroe is a man who has an opinion on everything in tennis but as he prepares to contest the AEGON Masters at London’s Royal Albert Hall, he admits he cannot make his mind up about what to expect from world no.1 Novak Djokovic at the beginning of 2012.

McEnroe commentated on two of Djokovic’s three Grand Slam triumphs this year and eulogized about the Serb’s resilience as he overcame Rafael Nadal in September’s US Open final. But he has watched with concern as the 24 year-old has struggled with his fitness ever since.

Now the New Yorker admits: “Djokovic is the favorite for the Australian Open but if he retired at two sets to one down in the quarter-finals because he couldn’t breathe that also wouldn’t shock me.

“It looked like he had conquered that sort of thing but going down the stretch in the last few months of this year maybe he wasn’t digging as deep as he could. Perhaps he was already thinking about next year.”

McEnroe’s long standing ‘Best Year’ record of 1984 when he won 82 matches and lost only three seemed under threat from Djokovic until the Serb had to quit midway through the Davis Cup semi-final loss to Argentina and has been plagued by shoulder and back problems ever since.

“After my best year maybe I didn’t realize how much energy I’d expended,” said an understanding McEnroe. “If you’ve had a dominant year there’s a tendency to think: ‘Why do I need to improve?’

“I made the mistake of sitting on what I’d accomplished and not working on things. It seems that he wasn’t able to find a way to win in the last few months, but that could come back suddenly.”

“DAILY TENNIS NEWS WIRE”

Topics: John Mcenroe, Novak Djokovic