Taylor Fritz confirmed that Novak Djokovic reached out to him after tearing his meniscus because the American dealt with a similar injury a few years ago.
In 2021, the American suffered a knee injury at Roland Garros, having to leave the courts in a wheelchair. The injury was later diagnosed as a meniscus tear, for which he underwent surgery immediately.
The most impressive part is that he would find himself on the courts only 20 days later at Wimbledon, winning his first-round match. That's incredible because it's nowhere near the norm for a meniscus tear, which generally has a 4-6 weeks recovery period.
Fritz's comeback was flawless, as he didn't experience any issues. Due to that, Djokovic apparently reached out to Fritz to see how he did it because the Serbian is in a similar situation.
He's not as young as Fritz but also underwent surgery to fix a meniscus tear with Wimbledon quickly approaching. The doctor who performed the operation in Paris recently admitted that he doesn't think Djokovic will be ready for Wimbledon. Still, he's had some amazing comebacks before and according to Fritz, he can do it.
"I told him what it was like for me. A lot of it comes down to the inflammation and how you react. It’s possible for Novak to play. It’s the exact same thing that I had and I played. Obviously, I wasn’t contending to win a title, I was just showing up to hopefully win a couple of rounds – but it is possible."
Fritz then expanded on his own recovery, which, in his case, went really well. The surgery should take care of any structural damage, and that's why dealing with the inflammation is the most important part.
"When I did it I couldn’t even walk. People are different. It’s the same actual injury. It really comes down to the level of inflammation. You pretty much have your full strength immediately. It’s more just the inflammation from the surgery. As long as you can get that down and start playing without it puffing up again, you’re actually going to be fine to play."
"I was doing three-four hours of PT, a lot of icing, trying to stick to a diet which was not going to cause extra inflammation because I was real determined to play Wimbledon. But for me it was a little bit different."
The American is also confident that when the Serbian makes a decision to play at Wimbledon, he will be there to challenge for a win, not just to participate.
"If Novak goes to Wimbledon he wants to be there to win. Playing a whole tournament is different than me at the time going there. I was going to be a low seed anyway (31). Winning a couple of rounds was a solid result for me."
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