Madrid ATP Masters 1000, Rome ATP Masters 1000 & Injuries

[@harrellgrahamable]

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) cannot be ruled out with recent injury to Djokovic that happened after his first match at the Italian Open May 2024 after beating Moutet (after your ATP ChitChat video here was made). A (metal?) water bottle (with water/drink in it making it heavier?) slipped out of a pack from a fan a meter or more above Djokovic and hit Djokovic in the head. Playing the video in slow-motion appears to show the edge of the bottle striking Djokovic’s head. That could very well have been a great deal of Force delivered to Djokovic’s head at a small point of impact. It would be helpful to know the weight of the bottle and the distance it traveled before hitting his head and then you could compute the actual Force. After being struck in the head, Djokovic doubled over in pain on the ground in a fetal position. In his next match with Tabilo, Djokovic played what some said was the worst game he’s ever played: he looked completely ‘off’ and ‘strange’ and ‘befuddled’. In the press conference after his very quick loss to Tabilo, in response to a question if the head injury affected his playing, Djokovic said “I (went through) a half-hour to an hour of nausea, dizziness, and blood and a lot of different things. I had headaches. (In my subsequent game) I had no rhythm, no tempo, no balance whatsoever on any shot. Today, under high stress, it was quite bad in terms of disbalance (sic), no coordination. I was a completely different player from what I was two nights ago.”

[@ballboy_tennis_padel_clothing]

As is often the case with Novak, you never are 100% sure about the extent of his injuries. Personally, and after reading many reports, it doesn't seem that bad, and we will probably never know the whole truth anyway. We must also remember that Novak is actually having quite a bad year so far for his standards, he is not playing well, has recently also changed his team and pretty much everyone around him which usually impacts most players. Federer retired and Nadal following soon must have an impact; and lastly, Tabilo is currently 20th in the year standings and playing excellent on clay, and played lights out against Novak so the result is not really that shocking. The French Open is wide open now, I think many players are licking their lips!