Novak Djokovic: Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff react to the Serb’s French Open injury blow

Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff have both weighed in on Novak Djokovic’s withdrawal from the 2024 French Open due to injury.

Gauff highlighted the scheduling of Djokovic’s match against Lorenzo Musetti as a cause of the injury, while Alcaraz expressed his surprise at the fact the Serbian pulled out.

Djokovic would have faced Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros today, but announced his withdrawal from the tournament on Tuesday.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion sustained a medial meniscus injury in his right knee during his five-set fourth round victory over Francisco Cerundolo on Monday.

This happened the day after Djokovic overcame Musetti in five sets at 3:07am on Sunday morning in the latest-ever finish to a match at the French Open.

The 37-year-old came back from two sets to one down in both matches and spent over nine hours on court across the two contests.

It has since been reported that Djokovic has undergone surgery on his knee , leaving his hopes of competing at next month’s Wimbledon Championships in serious doubt.

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Following her three-set quarter-final victory over Ons Jabeur at Roland Garros, Gauff gave her reaction to the news of Djokovic’s withdrawal.

“You know, Brad [Gilbert] was actually the first person to tell me. He’s always on top of everything that’s going on on site. So, I was very surprised,” explained the US Open champion.

“I watched this match against the last, like, two sets or three sets against Francisco Cerundolo. And yeah. I mean, I saw that he was obviously physically struggling and I honestly thought, I think everybody thought, well not everybody, but I thought he was on the verge of losing

“And I don’t know something about him and I thought when you get through a match like that, that he would win the title but, obviously I feel like I don’t want to put any words in his mouth, but I think it probably came just from the late start.

“And it was unfortunate that he had to, you know, the matches went five sets back to back. So I think it was just a combination of those two things. Hopefully the injury’s not too serious and he can be ready for Wimbledon.”

After beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last eight at the Paris Major, Alcaraz admitted he expected Djokovic to be able to continue playing after watching his win over Cerundolo.

“Well, I was surprised that he withdrew from the tournament after watch[ing] the match yesterday. He finished the match playing great tennis and he didn’t show pain at the end of the match,” said the two-time Grand Slam winner.

“So, it was a surprise for me that he withdrew from the tournament. But he talked with his team, with the doctor and you know, tennis is like that, so sometimes you have to deal with it.

“But I think not having Djokovic in the tournament, it’s, I’m going to say frustrating for the fans not having one of the best players in the world in the tournament.”

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