“Does LeBron James play the NBA finals at three in the morning?” : John McEnroe slams French Open for Novak Djokovic’s schedule
Former Grand Slam champion John McEnroe has slammed the French Open organizers for poor scheduling of Novak Djokovic’s matches. The Serbian was forced to withdraw from the tournament owing to issues with his right knee. However, John McEnroe believes that the Serbian’s issues could have worsened because of his lack of recovery time.
Novak Djokovic prevailed in a five-set thriller against Lorenzo Musetti in the third round. The match only started at 10.30 pm, and continued late until almost 4 am. In just under 48 hours, he was back on court to face Francisco Cerundolo in the last 16. He was once again pushed to five sets by the Argentine, as he managed to prevail under pressure yet again.
John McEnroe believes that Novak Djokovic’s existing injury issues were worsened by the poor scheduling from the French Open organizers. He believes that this is a huge shame for the tournament if he had to withdraw owing to lack of recovery time.
“That’s not what is good for our sport; that’s a bad look. Does LeBron James play the NBA finals at three in the morning? There’s [been] a lot of rain, and they were trying to catch up, but they didn’t need to put Grigor Dimitrov on that court. That just put everything off,” said McEnroe on Eurosport.
“I don’t know what they were thinking, other than they just wanted to get through. What did they think, that the other guy [Bergs] would just roll over and not try, or something? So the whole thing was, it’s a black eye for our sport, truthfully.”
“It was a joke that they put him out at 10:30pm” : John McEnroe on Novak Djokovic’s scheduling at French Open
John McEnroe believes that it was for a shame for the tournament to put someone as reputed as Novak Djokovic out on court at 10:30 pm. Rain impacted play at the French Open throughout the course of the first week, as the organizers were trying to catchup on the schedule. This led to a delay in Novak Djokovic’s third round match, as a couple of matches were moved to different courts.
“You got the top seed, arguably the best player that ever lived getting hurt, and that contributed to it. Having to play till three in the morning, you can’t tell me that didn’t have an effect on his body, his system, or his recovery. What time did he go to bed? Seven. How much sleep did he get? You could go on and on, and this is not the first time,” said McEnroe.
“He’s an all-time great, maybe the greatest, and it’s a shame. Obviously, we are all hoping that he plays [at Wimbledon]. It would be a shame if it exacerbated an already bad situation by having him withdraw,” he added.
Novak Djokovic withdrew from the French Open a day before his quarterfinal battle against Casper Ruud. The Serbian has undergone a surgery already, and is bracing up for an action-packed summer ahead. It remains to be seen if the 24-time Grand Slam champion returns to action for the grass court season. He will certainly target a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, which takes place in the end of July.
Also Read: “Olympics is way more important for Novak Djokovic” : Mats Wilander
