“Disappear Overnight”: Toni Nadal Takes a Dig at Novak Djokovic’s Injury at Australian Open 2021

World No.1 Novak Djokovic is receiving a lot of criticism these days. The Serbian legend suffered an injury during the third set in his match against Taylor Fritz at the Australian Open 2021. He even took a medical time-out, but just managed to win the match somehow in the final set.

Novak Djokovic later admitted that he was not able to move or rotate his body after the tear. He even said that there were chances that he might withdraw from the tournament.

However, such a thing didn’t take place and Djokovic recently faced Milos Raonic in the fourth round of the Australian Open 2021 in which he defeated him quite easily.

In a recent interview, Rafael Nadal’s uncle and former coach Toni Nadal also took a dig at Djoker. He said that at one point Djokovic was in so much pain that he was thinking of withdrawing from the Grand Slam, but later it just vanished.

“It is surprising that Djokovic is bothered, to the point of having doubts about whether to continue in the tournament and then disappear overnight,” said uncle Toni in the interview.

Many including Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou also criticized Djokovic for this. Although the coach accepted that he was in immense pain, he mentioned that his injury was not that big due to which he should have thought of withdrawing from the major.

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“Will not be the one who questions whether his pains are true or not”- Toni Nadal on Novak Djokovic

Although Uncle Toni looked quite unhappy with Djokovic, he highlighted that he would never question his pain. The former coach also believes that Djoker hides his pain much less than he should.

“I will not be the one who questions whether his pains are true or not, something common in an athlete, but he probably hides them less than he should,” concluded Toni Nadal.

Even though Djokovic is receiving backlash, his fans are quite happy that he isn’t withdrawing from the Grand Slam. The World No.1 will face Alexander Zverev in the quarters of the Australian Open 2021 next. Will Djokovic be able to successfully defend his title in Melbourne this year?

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