MELBOURNE – Nine-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic reportedly cut short a practice match against Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday due to a left hamstring problem, five days before the Grand Slam.
The Serbian returned to Melbourne after his expulsion in 2022, but had to seek treatment and then ended the knockout with the Russian after losing the first set.
The session at Melbourne Park was supposed to last 75 minutes, but was cut short after just over half an hour as a precaution, ABC and 9News Melbourne reported.
“It was my hamstring that I had problems with in Adelaide last week,” Djokovic said, according to 9News.
“I just felt like it was pulling and I didn’t want to risk anything worse.” I played a set and apologized to him (Medvedev) and he was understanding.
“I just want to avoid any bigger scares before the Australian Open.”
Djokovic, who won the Adelaide crown on Sunday despite a lingering hamstring problem, is the hot favorite to triumph again in Melbourne.
One of the best men’s tennis players of all time with 21 Grand Slam crowns, he was kicked out of Australia in 2022 over his stance on Covid-19 vaccines.
It divides opinion in a city that suffered some of the world’s longest lockdowns at the height of the pandemic.
Australian Open spectators were also warned on Wednesday they risked eviction if they target the Serb, who was warmly received in Adelaide last week, but it remains to be seen how he will be received in Melbourne.
Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said any fans seeking to taunt Djokovic would not be tolerated.
“If they disrupt someone else’s fun, boom, they’re out,” he said.
“We don’t want them there. They can stay away or we will expel them.
