Novak Djokovic recently hit back after some accused him of faking a hamstring injury. He said he had MRI’s and ultrasounds he might release to confirm it. This was after he crushed Alex De Minur. I don’t doubt he is hurt and dealing with pain, but when you beat a top 25 player like that I can understand how some eyebrows were raised. He took it to another level similarly crushing the 5 seed Andrey Rublev in a bracket that suddenly appears to be his for the taking playing at this level.
1st
Roberto Carballes Baena
W
6-3, 6-4, 6-0
2nd
Enzo Couacaud
W
6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-0
3rd
(27) Grigor Dimitrov
W
7-6 (9-7), 6-3, 6-4
4th
(22) Alex De Minaur
W
6-2, 6-1, 6-2
Quarterfinals
(5) Andrey Rublev
W
6-1, 6-2, 6-4
He needs only to get by surprise world #35 Tommy Paul in the Semi Finals to reach his 33rd Grand Slam Final. There he will face 18th seed Karen Khachanov or 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas. Both should be a tougher test, but the way he just destroyed Rublev he has to be the favorite. The ability to play through pain and still play at this level is impressive and something not credited to tennis players enough. When you see players like Andy Murray with a metal hip playing nearly 6 hours, or guys playing through injury sometimes in the heat they do I’d put the will power against almost any sport. Tennis laughs at load management, pain and comfort is the name of the game in the majors or for the 80 to 90 matches some play a year with little to no offseason. There are no substitutions.
