French Open | You have people starving to death, there is no point in talking about my injury, says Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic, who is at a 12-year low in his ranking, suggested fans and media not to obsess about his injury problems when there are other important issues like people are starving to death. He insisted that he has changed and does not want to be the same person he was a few years ago.
Djokovic won his last major at the 2016 French Open and became just the eighth man to claim a career Grand Slam. But after that, things haven’t quite gone his way and currently, he is ranked at 22 in the world, his lowest ranking since 2006 when he was just 19. He won his first major in 2008 at the Australian Open.
A brutal elbow injury made him retire from the Wimbledon last year and kept him out of the game for the rest of 2017. In 2018, too, he had to undergo surgery in January and hasn’t shown the sharpness in his game as yet. He insisted the media and fans not to be obsessed by his injury and pointed out that there are other vital issues they should be giving importance to like people starving to death.
After a 7-6 (7/1), 6-4, 6-4 win over Spanish qualifier Jaume Munar on Wednesday which gave him a spot in the Roland Garros third round for the 13th time, he said as quoted by TOI, "It's all a personal perspective. It can be really tough and it can be really easy. To sit here and talk about how tough it is and you have people starving to death, there is no point in talking about that.
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Djokovic was far from his best on Wednesday against Munar, who is ranked 155 in the world, but managed to get the better of him. The Serb would now be facing Spain's 13th seed Roberto Bautista Agut. Djokovic, who was the first player to break the $100 million prize money barrier, stated that he has a different life and does not want to be the same person as he was a few years ago. He insisted that his priorities in life have changed and tennis isn’t the only important thing in his life now.
"I don't want to be the same person and player that I was two, three, four years ago. I have a different life. I'm a father of two children, and it's a lot of different things that I prioritize in life. It's not only about tennis, which has been the case before," he added.