World number two Novak Djokovic decided to withdraw from this week's Masters 1000 tournament in Miami due to an elbow injury. World number one Andy Murray had already announced his withdrawal from the tournament, also because of an elbow injury. Both players had disappointing performances at last week's tournament at Indian Wells, with Andy Murray losing to Canadian world number 129 Vasek Pospisil and Novak Djokovic bowing out after a defeat against Nick Kyrgios.
"My doctor has strongly advised against play because my elbow injury, that I keep carrying on for months, got worse in the past week," Novak Djokovic said after apologizing to his fans who had already bought tickets to the Miami Open. "I will do everything in my power to recover and do all the necessary therapy to be able to return on court as soon as possible." Andy Murray had a similar statement a few days before: "The focus is on getting ready for the clay-court season. Apologies to the fans, it's one of my favourite tournaments."
The two withdrawals will play to Murray's advantage as far as the world rankings are concerned. The Briton will extend his lead at the top of the world rankings to over 4,000 points over second placed Novak Djokovic. The Serb will lose a lot of points as he has won the Miami tournament last season, so Murray's lead will increase from 3,090 points this week to 4,045 points after the Miami Open. Both players are surely preparing for the clay-court season and the next Grand Slam tournament, the French Open.
Novak Djokovic is currently 7/4 at Bet365 to win the French Open this year, while Andy Murray is 3/1 to clinch the title in Roland Garros.
sharpe 7 years ago
I think it's wise move from both players to pull out from tournament, obviously both have some injuries and really poor form lately so it's a must break for them. I'm not getting tired to repeat that in most cases rest and recovery is quite more important than training. Djokovic's fans could only hope to see him ever...
I think it's wise move from both players to pull out from tournament, obviously both have some injuries and really poor form lately so it's a must break for them. I'm not getting tired to repeat that in most cases rest and recovery is quite more important than training. Djokovic's fans could only hope to see him ever at his usual level because there's not many signs of that lately I think, but it has been almost a year now for him in that black hole, I believe the real Djoko will return sooner or later though.
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Markotik 7 years ago
Djokovic's serve has been week for some time now, though his ground strokes were decent, and even very good times, I guess all due to this niggling injury. I hope they both will fully recover for the clay court season. With Federer and Nadal playing well again, it should be a blast.
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