Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the Cincinnati Open for the second consecutive year, meaning that he will arrive at the U.S. Open in New York City having not played since Wimbledon, where he lost to Jannik Sinner in the semifinals.
A spokesperson for the tournament confirmed Djokovic’s absence from the ATP Masters 1,000 tournament, whose main draws begin Aug. 7.
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This time last year, Djokovic was coming off winning Olympic gold against Carlos Alcaraz in Paris. He had won the tennis title he craved above all else; playing another tournament was not on the agenda.
This year, he is in search of rhythm that allows him to compete for the four most important tournaments in the sport, the majors, while protecting his body enough to do it with consistency at 38.
He tried the “play regularly” version, playing the “Sunshine Double” of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif. and the Miami Open in Florida for the first time in six years. He lost early in California and made the final in Miami, and then also exited early at the Madrid Open.
That led him to withdraw from the Italian Open in Rome, and he has taken the minimalist path since.
‘This seems like energy conservation’
Analysis
At 38 years-old, two decades into his professional career, Novak Djokovic certainly does not need much warm-up time to get ready for a tournament on a hard court.
He’s won the Australian Open 10 times and won the U.S. Open four times. He knows his way around hard courts: slow ones, fast ones, medium ones. He’ll be fine on that front.
After losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon semifinal, Djokovic said his biggest obstacle to winning a 25th Grand Slam was his gas tank. He can make his way to the business end of the draw, but when he gets there he’s physically depleted.
In Australia, he beat Carlos Alcaraz but had to pull out of his semi-final against Alexander Zverev after a set with a hamstring injury. At Roland Garros, he lost to Sinner in the semi-finals in three sets, two of them tight ones. He’d won his 100th title the day before the tournament started at a tuneup event in Geneva.
At Wimbledon, he slipped in the waning moments of his quarter-final win and then was a shadow of himself in the semi-finals against Sinner as he struggled to move. Then he said he was working as hard as he possibly could but his body wasn’t answering the bell in the late stages of Grand Slams, given the best-of-five format.
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And so, unless there is a serious injury going on, and he has given no indication that there is, this seems like energy conservation. Ohio in August can be hot and depleting. He doesn’t need to win in Cincinnati anymore. If his priority is giving himself a chance in New York, this appears to be the best chance for doing so.
Plus he’s playing the mixed doubles with his compatriot Olga Danilovic the week before. That ought to get him plenty sharp – or not.
Truth be told, as Djokovic put it, Sinner and Alcaraz are levels better than anyone right now. His best chance against them now is probably if they beat themselves – as Alcaraz did in Australia – and he’s there to pick up the pieces.
(Photo: Ian Johnson / Sportswire via Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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