Novak Djokovic was worried he had dislocated his shoulder after landing on it while diving for a ball during his third round match at Wimbledon Friday, but luckily he avoided any serious injury.
Djokovic was up two sets and leading 3-2 in the third set when he was wrong-footed by Gilles Simon and slipped trying to reverse direction while going for the ball. Instead of letting the ball go for a winner, Djokovic tried to dive for it to make the save. He ended up hurting his left shoulder in the process, but everything turned out to be fine.
Djokovic recovered to win the third 6-4 and won the match in straight sets. He even was joking in his post-match news conference.
“Talked with Boris and we obviously need to work on my diving volleys and learning how to fall down,” Djokovic joked of his coach who was famous for diving for volleys at Wimbledon. “I’m not very skillful in that, so I tried to land on my left arm, so I basically had a strong impact on the shoulder. When I stood up, I felt that clay court pop or whatever you call it. I feared that it might be a dislocated shoulder or something like that.
“But no damage significant that can cause big problems. I just came from the doctor’s office and ultrasound, and it’s all looking good.”
That’s great news for Nole. The not so good news is that he has a challenge in the fourth round in the form of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. That guy is always dangerous.
Video of the play is below:
