Former world No. 1 Novak Djokovic on Tuesday admitted that his six-month absence from tennis has taught him never to take his career for granted, describing his injury agony as a “roller-coaster ride.”
The 30-year-old Serb has not played since Wimbledon in July, when a long-standing elbow injury forced him to shut down his season.
As a consequence, the 12-time major winner saw his world ranking slip to 12th, his lowest place in 10 years.
“It’s been a real roller-coaster ride for me for a year and a half with this issue. I’ve never had surgery in my life, I’ve never had any major injuries that kept me away from the tour for such a long time,” Djokovic told Sport360 in Abu Dhabi.
“I never missed a Grand Slam in my career. It was a big decision, a big call to make. I couldn’t play anymore, there was no choice. It was like: ‘That’s it, you can’t lift your arm,’” he added.
Djokovic is to return to the court in Abu Dhabi at the pre-season Mubadala World Tennis Championship, which runs from today to Saturday.
He is then due to start his competitive season as top seed at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open next week before launching a bid for a seventh Australian Open crown.
‘GREAT LESSON’
Having added mercurial former ATP Tour player Radek Stepanek to a coaching team spearheaded by Andre Agassi, Djokovic only started hitting again in Monaco four weeks ago.
“I’ve learned a lesson, because I really want to avoid getting to that stage of an injury ever in my career after this,” Djokovic said.
“And it was a great lesson to learn, to be honest. It was not easy for me to be absent for so long,” he said.
“I can’t wait to get back on the competition level, but it was a great experience for me to have, and it was a somewhat necessary experience, because I got maybe too comfortable with not having major injuries,” he added.
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