Novak Djokovic 'not playing before Wimbledon' to 'recover mentally' from French Open loss

09.06.2022 - 17:19 msn.com

Novak Djokovic will not be playing a grass court warm-up event following his quarter-final exit from the French Open and is instead set to come straight to Wimbledon.

The Serb has not been in action since losing to Rafael Nadal in Paris and will not be getting any competition in before the next Grand Slam tournament, according to his coach.

Djokovic is the defending champion at Wimbledon but, with the ATP removing ranking points, is primed to take a blow to his ranking when his 2,000 points for last year's victory are removed.

He is already set to drop to world No 3 on Monday as a result of his early exit from the French Open and could earn crucial points by competing in the grass-court warm-up events.

tennis loss Rafael Nadal France Paris Montenegro

John McEnroe has provided some interesting insights into the differences in mindset between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon. The two great rivals are both eyeing glory at SW19 this fortnight and are coming into the Grand Slam in very different positions in their respective careers.

Why does Novak Djokovic eat grass at Wimbledon? Unusual tradition explained

Novak Djokovic will once again be one of the hot favourites to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon in the 2022 edition of the prestigious tournament. The Serb has endured a tumultuous year so far, which began with him extraordinarily being deported from Melbourne due to his Covid vaccine status as he was not allowed to participate in the Australian Open.

Novak Djokovic aims to match Wimbledon title haul of childhood hero Pete Sampras

Top seed Novak Djokovic believes he is in good shape to match the Wimbledon title haul of his childhood hero Pete Sampras.

Novak Djokovic eyes redemption at Wimbledon amid tempestuous season

Novak Djokovic would have envisaged back in January but the former world number one will hope to find redemption at Wimbledon as he looks to defend his crown and close in on Rafael Nadal's 22 Grand Slam titles. The 35-year-old Serb has won the last three editions of Wimbledon in 2018, 2019 and last year, with the 2020 tournament cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was also on track for a rare calendar-year Grand Slam in 2021 after winning the first three majors, before losing to Russia's Daniil Medvedev in the U.S. Open final. Any hopes of a repeat performance this season were quickly dashed with his high-profile detention and deportation ahead of the Australian Open in January due to his refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19. He then missed a string of U.S. tournaments for the same reason and only got serious match practice once the claycourt season got under way in Europe.