John McEnroe is very pro-player in his opinions and very straightforward in his thinking, which is why he called the fiasco surrounding Novak Djokovic's late-night finish at Roland Garros 'a joke'.
Many tennis players commented on the scheduling mess that likely contributed to Djokovic's knee injury in his match against Francisco Cerundolo. In his previous match at the event, a match was inserted before the 24-time Grand Slam champion's on the Court Philippe-Chatrier, which postponed the action.
Then, the match went on for five sets, finishing at 3 a.m., which is the latest-ever finish for a Roland Garros match. Everything that happened after was unfortunate and possibly could have been avoided, but if not, the whole mess was just unacceptable, according to McEnroe.
"It was a joke that they put him out at 10:30pm. It was a great match, and then it goes to three in the morning. Absurd. Then to have to come back and go through another marathon match."
"If this doesn't change the mentality of the majors about this type of schedule, I don't know what would, because he's the number one player in the world."
Djokovic won his next match but suffered a knee injury, which might have had something to do with his bad recovery. As a result, he withdrew from the tournament, which certainly didn't benefit the tournament organizers.
"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."
"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."
0 Comments