Summary of Novak Djokovic's disqualification from the 2024 Indian Wells tournament/Sport1
Novak Djokovic talked a lot about the difficulties he went through in his childhood and throughout his career, but the Serbian tennis player managed to surprise with new information about his career and his life.
Nola took advantage of his visit to Los Angeles to appear on a panel, where he shared with the audience some of the most difficult moments of his career.
As you remember, in 2016, Djokovic started having problems with his elbow injury.
Then, in 2017, he presented a weak ability, after he did not want to undergo surgery and the alternative medicine did not help.
In an interview with Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Jewish film producer and CEO of DreamWorks, he reveals how he faced and overcame a crisis, and illustrates why he should not be eulogized even now, after the disappointing opening of the season.
He has already been through quite a few difficult moments, and has overcome them all.
Nola/Reuters
"Injuries are the worst enemy of athletes," said Nola, "when someone is injured in an individual sport, especially in tennis, there is no replacement, no one to replace you. Your career is on hold. The things you have built for years may be at risk. I believe there is prevention not only in sports, But also in life. I had one major surgery, I had an elbow injury. Because of everything that happened over the years, because of long matches, long seasons, after all, tennis has the longest season, it starts in January and ends in November. Many tournaments, many trips, all that Affects the body and mind.
"It was bad in 2017, and I felt the pain in my elbow back in 2016.
I was always against painkillers, I didn't like them, but I had to use them.
I'm sure many athletes can relate to this.
People expect you to play, they buy tickets and maybe this is their only chance to see you and you always think: 'I want to be there, I don't want to disappoint people, myself, the family'.
I hurt, I dealt with the injury, but it just got worse.
"I killed this pain of mine, but in the Wimbledon quarterfinals I realized that I couldn't serve. That I couldn't raise my hand. I knew it was over and that this was the moment when I had to make some radical changes. I avoided surgery at all costs, and when I finished after Wimbledon, I took a break and didn't want to to play. I tried treatment, trained for the new season, felt the pain again, went to play in Australia and realized I had to undergo surgery. I did and six weeks later I was back."
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"I lost, I felt bad on the court. I thought it was time to finish. Then I had to sort out my serve, my tactics, everything was a challenge. I gathered my team, I told them I was walking away from professional tennis, I thought it was time for the next chapter"/GettyImages, Clive Brunskill
However, he says, during this period, thoughts of retirement began to creep in.
"I cried after the surgery," Nola said, "not because of the pain, but because I let myself down. My philosophy is to avoid surgery, to do everything I can to not go 'under the knife,' and my mom was there for me. I told her, 'Mom , I let myself down!'. She comforted me and said it was normal and that everyone does it. It was a huge change for me, I was 30 at the time. And that's old for an athlete, you're entering the last stage of your career. I had a fantastic career and nobody said For me to slow down, not play for a year or two."
Nola paused for a moment, then added: "I felt like I wanted to stop playing tennis. A few months after the surgery I was out of the top 20. I played the worst tennis ever. I lost, I felt bad on the court. I thought it was time to finish. And then I had to fix my serve , the tactics, everything was a challenge. I gathered my team, I told them I was walking away from professional tennis, I thought it was time for the next chapter. My wife, my manager, my team - everyone was there. They told me to wait, relax, think because I'm hot-tempered '. I lost a match in Miami and I thought that was it, then I stopped. They supported me, I am grateful to them for that. I had to relax, shortly after that, in the second part of 2018 I won Wimbledon, the US Open, and I just started to pick myself up. Then In the following years I had the best moments of my career."
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