‘Doesn’t Look Like a Muscle Tear’: Patrick Mouratoglou Debunks Claims that Novak Djokovic Has an Abdominal Injury

Novak Djokovic suffered a major injury scare during his third-round match at the Australian Open, which put his title defense in question. Djokovic looked dejected after enduring the abdominal muscle tear. However, Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou has dismissed such claims. 

Mouratoglou is an ardent admirer of Novak Djokovic and considers him to be a champion of the sport. Sure enough, Djokovic has the trophies to back that claim, but that doesn’t mean Mouratoglou endorses everything the Serbian claims. 

The 50-year-old coach recently spoke to ‘Tennis Majors,’ where he opened up about the significance of having a rock-solid mentality when it comes to Grand Slams.

He cited Djokovic as an example and credited the 33-year-old for playing through the pain in the third round of Australian Open 2021. 

“A lot of players like to have little pain here and there, because it takes pressure off. Now, we’re talking about champions. And champions never escape pressure. They accept it, embrace it and learn to deal with it,” Mouratoglou said. 

Patrick Mouratoglou disapproves that Novak Djokovic has torn an abdominal muscle

Djokovic suffered an injury during the third set of his match against Taylor Fritz that largely hindered his performance. The reigning Australian Open champion had to be medically treated in between changes, and it was later revealed that Djokovic tore an abdominal muscle that affected his game. 

This injury also caused Novak Djokovic to forego Sunday’s training ahead of his fourth-round clash against Milos Raonic, but the Serbian was deemed fit to play the match. This is is the part that Mouratoglou finds hard to believe. 

“I do not say that he is not injured. He probably has something, but it doesn’t look like a muscle tear, otherwise he would not be able to move and hit like that,” Mouratoglou wrote on his Twitter account. 

This raises massive questions about the severity of Djokovic’s injury. Mouratoglou’s been coaching for years and he knows how a muscle tear would affect a player’s physical fitness. Thus, when he claims Djokovic has nothing of that sort, it must be taken into account seriously. 

Did Novak Djokovic really suffer a muscle tear during his third-round match? If not, what injury did he actually sustain? Two physios examined the pain in his body and later cleared him to play the fourth round, which means that it is nothing serious! 

What’s your take on the same?

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