Novak Djokovic is out of Wimbledon after retiring injured during his quarter-final against Tomas Berdych. The former world number one, who would have regained top spot by winning the title, was down 7-6 (7-2) 2-0 when he withdrew with an elbow injury. Djokovic, 30, had treatment on a right shoulder injury during his last-16 win over Adrian Mannarino and needed further attention against Berdych.
The Serb said he would consider whether surgery was needed to fix the injury. "I haven't felt this much pain since I've had this injury," said Djokovic. "It's not the shoulder, it's the elbow that has kept bothering me for over a year and a half. "I was able, for 30 minutes, to play with some pain that was bearable, but the serve and forehand were shots where I could feel it the most. After that, there was really no sense [in continuing]."
Djokovic had been set to play his last-16 match against Mannarino on Monday but it was delayed as Rafael Nadal's match against Gilles Muller went to five sets and tournament officials decided to not move the Serb on to the available Centre Court. He beat Mannarino 6-2 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in Tuesday's opening match but was the only men's quarter-finalist not to have a day's rest between rounds.
Against Berdych, Djokovic called a medical time-out after losing the first-set tie-break and received attention on his right arm before he withdrew. "It is unfortunate I had to finish Wimbledon in this way. If someone feels bad, it is me," added Djokovic. "I spent about two hours, two and a half hours, on the table today in between the warm-up and match, trying to do everything I could to make me fit.
"I'm going to talk with specialists, as I have done in the last year, to try to figure out what's the best way to treat it and find a long-term solution. "The level of pain was not decreasing, it was only increasing as the days went by. Unfortunately, today was the worst day. Probably the fact I played yesterday, days adding up, it wasn't helping at all."
Courtesy:BBC