Djokovic exits Open with bad shoulder
03 September, 2019
Defending champion and No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic’s stay at the U.S. Open ended abruptly when he stopped playing during his fourth-round match against Stan Wawrinka on Sunday night because of pain in his left shoulder.
Djokovic was trailing 4-6, 5-7, 1-2 and being thoroughly outplayed when he retired from the match in Arthur Ashe Stadium, shaking his head as he walked over to the chair umpire to say he was conceding.
Some spectators booed as he left the arena floor to head to the locker room. Djokovic responded with a thumbs-up.
“I’m sorry for the crowd. Obviously they came to see a full match, and just wasn’t to be,” Djokovic said at his news conference. “I mean, a lot of people didn’t know what’s happening, so you cannot blame them.”
The 32-year-old Serb explained that he had been “taking different stuff to kill the pain instantly; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
“The pain was constant for weeks now,” Djokovic said.
Djokovic had won 36 of his past 37 Grand Slam matches, and four of the last five major titles, in one of the most dominant stretches this sport has seen. That had pushed his Slam trophy total to 16, moving within four of Roger Federer’s record 20, and within two of Rafael Nadal’s 18.
He also had been 11-0 in fourth-rounders at Flushing Meadows.
“It’s never the way you want to finish the match,” said Wawrinka, who will face No. 5 seed Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals. “I feel sorry for Novak.”
Djokovic began complaining about his left shoulder during a second-round victory on Wednesday, when he repeatedly got massaged by a trainer during changeovers.
He won his next match Friday, looking good and declaring his shoulder much improved, although he refused to disclose any details of the injury or what type of treatment he had received.
While Djokovic is a righty, he uses his left arm for the ball tosses on his serves and to grip the racket for his two-fisted backhands.
Team McCoco stay perfect
Coco Gauff and Caty McNally have aced doubles tennis together.
They won their U.S. Open women’s doubles match Sunday at Louis Armstrong Stadium, then were later asked what they knew about the man the stadium was named for.
“He played the saxophone,” McNally said.
Wrong.
“His nickname was Saxamo,” Gauff said.
Also incorrect.
Gauff is just 15 and McNally 17, so forgive them for not knowing that the jazz musician played the trumpet, or that his nickname was Satchmo.
Gauff said McNally’s coach gave them a history lesson before their match, in case they were asked. And though Gauff was a little off on the nickname, she nailed the instrument.
“It was a trumpet. He told us that. You didn’t pay attention,” Gauff said toward McNally, as they sat together and shared a microphone.
Team McCoco is perfect on the court, remaining unbeaten together by topping the No. 9-seeded team of Nicole Melichar and Kveta Peschke 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) to reach the third round. Gauff and McNally won the U.S. Open junior title last year and teamed for their first WTA doubles title this summer in Washington.
Things are a lot different this year, where Armstrong Stadium was packed to the top to watch them, and a long line of fans hoping to get in waited outside. They move to the Grandstand on Monday for the third round, when they play the eighth-seeded team of Ash Barty and Victoria Azarenka.
“Last year playing in juniors we actually played a couple matches indoors, so there was only about 20 people there maybe,” McNally said.
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