The former world number one has been beset with an elbow injury that sidelined him for six months after he was forced to retire at the quarter-finals of Wimbledon last year.
A return to action at the Australian Open with a modified serving action resulted
in a fourth round defeat while a limp exit at Indian Wells last week only heightened doubts that the 30 year-old would ever add to his total of 12 Grand Slams.
Yet as the Serbian star fine tuned his attempt to win in Key Biscayne for a record seventh time, he spoke of finally putting an end to the injury torment which has blighted his efforts to return to the form which saw him become the first man since the legendary Australian Rod Laver to hold all four majors at once less than two years ago.
“I actually started playing pain-free in the last two days. It’s quite refreshing because everything else had pain involved,” Djokovic said.
“The last few days have been first in a long, long time that I could actually be focused on the game rather than have something in my mind and be worried about whether I am going to have pain or not.”
Asked by AFP to clarify his injury situation, Djokovic
added: “Actually it’s the first time in years (he has been injury free).”
Djokovic’s physical problems have clearly affected his once seemingly impenetrable mental strength.
He swatted away a question about how he could challenge current world number one Roger Federer, the Miami Open reigning champion, preferring to concentrate on the lessons learned during the most arduous of comebacks.
“I have learned a lot about myself,” he said.
“It’s been a great, great blessing to go through this. I’ve been very successful in this sport over the course of the last six, seven years and I’ve been very grateful to go through that.
“But I obviously have had to face different circumstances, situations that I’ve never faced before. Ever since I started professional tennis my trajectory was always going in the
right direction and that has changed.
“So I had to open up and figure out things, how to move forward and get inspired and be the best version I can be.”
Every day a process
Djokovic, who will play in the second round here tomorrow, underwent a “small medical intervention” following his defeat in Melbourne and has been seen in the build up here simulating a baseball pitch to ensure his right elbow stands up to the test.
“It’s one of the ways to warm up and get my body and my mind synchronised with a certain motion that I would like to have with my serve because that’s where I kind of compromise my elbow,” he said.
“So I’m trying to strengthen the muscles and get into a certain motion that would support the best possible serve.
“I am not yet at my best. Every day is a process for me and it’s an opportunity to learn, to grow and get better after the two years of injury and trying to figure out ways how to play pain free.
“I have had to modify a lot of things in my game to accept it. When I made this intervention, obviously it’s pretty invasive and unfortunately in the end it had to be done.
“It also carries certain consequences but right now, I’m not playing with the pain which is the most important thing.
“All I can do now is to try to embrace the process every day.”
Tomic’s return to court ends early in France
Bernard Tomic’s bid to kick-start his career after slipping to 181st in the world hit a speed bump on Tuesday when the 25-year-old Australian was knocked out in the first round of a second-tier tournament in France. Tomic, once touted as a top-10 player, was beaten 6-2 2-6 6-4 by France’s Antonie Hoang at the tournament in Lille. It was his first outing since losing in the third round of qualifying for the Australian Open in Melbourne in January, a defeat that then saw him snap at reporters.
That setback followed a forgettable 2017 season, during which he declared himself “bored” by Tennis at Wimbledon and spoke of feeling “trapped” during media interviews. Tomic, who was a contestant in a reality television show after the Australian Open, then put himself at loggerheads with Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt by saying Australia would not win the title if he was not picked.
Hewitt said it was unlikely Tomic would play under him again.
Tomic, however, seemed to have recognised a rethink was in order last month when he said that he had wasted 2017. He resumed training and was keen to rebuild his career on the secondary Challenger circuit before looking to rejoin the main ATP Tour in April. “I’m ready to challenge myself and hopefully in the next year I can be well inside the top 30,” he told News Corp in February. “But I’m going to have to work hard.”