Video PlayerClose BELGRADE, July 26-- World-famous tennis player Novak Djokovic announced on Wednesday at a press conference in Belgrade, Serbia that he will skip all tournaments until next January in order to rehabilitate his injured elbow. Djokovic explained that he has been suffering for a year and a half from an elbow injury, but that "it has escalated in the past one or two months, and especially at Wimbledon" when he forfeited match against Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinal of the tournament due to pain that could not be alleviated by medications. "This injury started in autumn 2017. Since then I played all tournaments under medications. I hoped that as time went by, the injury would disappear on its own because my ligaments and muscles had not been torn," Djokovic revealed, adding that he will have to restrain from training or even holding racquet. The 30-year-old tennis player, winner of 12 Grand Slam titles, one of eight players to achieve the Career Grand Slam, is the fifth ranked in the history of tennis with 223 weeks holding the title of world's number one (July 2011-July 2017, November 2017-October 2013, July 2017-November 2016). "I will need to rest without my tennis racquet and spend two months without playing. All doctors, specialists, orthopedists agree that rest is necessary and that the nature of this injury is such that it requires for me to stop playing and engage in passive-active rehabilitation. I will completely focus on healing of this injury and strengthening my body and I look at all this from a positive aspect, although it was not easy to bring a decision to be absent from the ATP tour for six months," he said. |