largely spoke about retirement from tennis in a pre-tournament press conference at the Australian Open on Sunday. The Serbian player trained with the Brit on Thursday defeating him 6-1 4-1 in a practice match.
Asked if he expected Murray to take such a hard decision, Djokovic replied: I wasnt, no. To be honest, I wasnt. But I did see, it was very obvious for everyone, you saw it, you didnt need to be on court to notice that hes struggling, that hes not moving as well as he normally does.
Weve seen so many years of Andy Murray being one of the fittest guys on the tour, running around the court, getting always an extra ball back. I think to that extent, we are kind of similar. Our trajectory to the professional tennis world was pretty much similar.
His birthday is one week before mine. Weve grown together playing junior events. We played lots of epic matches in the professional circuit. Our games are quite alike. Obviously to see him struggle so much and go through so much pain, its very sad and it hurts me as his longtime friend, colleague, rival.
Ive nurtured very good relationship with him on and off the court. Im proud to have that kind of relationship that will go on hopefully for many more years, regardless of whether we get to play against each other or not, whether he continues playing, whatever happens.
As I wrote in my post, I will carry beautiful memories from the court and off the court, as well, with him included. Its just sad. As someone that has been through a major injury myself recently, I can probably relate a little bit to what hes going through.
I think his injury of the hips is something probably certainly far more worse than mine, my injury, because its obviously something that hes been carrying for a while, for couple of years. ALSO READ: Djokovic would beat Roger Federer in Australian Open final – Evert
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