Novak Djokovic is facing a major injury scare that he dealt with during his United Cup match and played through it, but it's a concern ahead of a hugely important Australian Open title defense.
Djokovic finished last year strongly and positioned himself as the proverbial favourite for the upcoming Australian Open. Besides being one of the best players in the world, he's also the player who dominated that competition for years, so many expected him to do so again.
His second match at the United Cup puts some doubt on that because the Serbian appeared to deal with a rather painful wrist injury that bothered him. He won the match against Jiri Lehecka but seemed agitated during most of it, which might have something to do with the injury.
After the match, Djokovic acknowledged the injury but admitted that he found a way to play through it. He was scheduled to play the mixed doubles but withdrew before the match, leaving Next Gen ATP Finals winner Hamad Medjedovic to play with Olga Danilovic.
I managed to play through. It's not the first time or the last time, these things happen. You have to find a solution and thankfully I managed to finish the match and let's see what happens now.
We'll see what this means for Djokovic and Team Serbia. There is a chance he will withdraw himself completely from the event and simply focus on nursing his wrist to full health ahead of the Australian Open.
That might be the wisest thing to do, but also Djokovic might opt to finish the United Cup. That can actually be good news because he wouldn't do that if there was any risk of making things worse.
Wrists can be complicated, so he'll prioritize health and the Australian Open, which means that his next move will tell what the situation is.
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