Novak Djokovic cops a brutal swipe from Australian tennis player Arina Rodionova

Aussie tennis star Arina Rodionova has taken a particularly cheeky photo of Novak Djokovic because of the saga surrounding him. He injured his hamstring at the Australian Open earlier this year. The 33-year-old alluded to speculation about Djokovic’s seriousness on the way to a record 10th title at Melbourne Park.

Rodionova had injuries on her mind when she had to withdraw from the quarter-finals of the ITF event at home against fellow competitor Olivia Gadecki. A hamstring complaint appeared to be the cause when Rodionova posted a photo of her training with a heavily strapped thigh. Instagram soon after.

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“So I have a 3cm tear in my thigh and I’ve been doing some research, I should go tomorrow,” was the caption of the post. The world number 302, along with much of the tennis world, couldn’t have been more interested as an injured Djokovic made a decisive run to the title.

After Djokovic’s victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final, it was announced that the Serbian champion had suffered a 3 cm tear in his hamstring prior to the Australian Open. After some shaky moments in the opening rounds, the World No.1 now absolutely dominated the semifinals and finals.

However, the message soon took a dark turn when Rodionova’s follow-up message condemned the flood of abusive messages that had been sent after her beating Djokovic.

“Not sure why I’m getting all the death threats from Novak fans,” he wrote. – For some reason people think I was joking about the injury.

“Hamstring tears are no joke, people go to the hospital for them and can’t walk for days, you guys. Shame on you for turning this into a joke.

“Some can win slams, but the rest of us have to take time off.”

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In the face of widespread questions about the true extent of the injury, both Djokovic and his team have defended his run as being against the odds. At one point, Djokovic said that only his injuries raised questions of legitimacy when other players were more easily accepted.

I leave the doubt to those people, let them doubt, he said. Only my injuries are questioned. When some other players get hurt, they’re the victims, but when it’s me, I fake it.

“It’s very interesting. I don’t feel like I have to prove anything to anybody.”

Djokovic’s team is defending the world number one against criticism of a hamstring injury

Djokovic also had defenders in coach Goran Ivanisevic and former coach Boris Becker. Ivanisevic rated Djokovic’s 10th Australian Open title as “probably his best” grand slam win, with the aforementioned injury a key factor in why he valued it so much.

The coach was “terrified” during Djokovic’s third-round win over Grigor Dimitrov, fearing his tournament could end at any moment and put the rest of the season in jeopardy.

This is definitely Novak’s best win. Not only because of what happened last year, but also because of the last three weeks,” he said.

“I thought I’d seen it all when he won here in 2021, but this was incredible. It’s so impressive to play like this every day, better and better.

97% of the players would have withdrawn from the MRI scan. He’s from another planet the way he acts. He gave everything. I didn’t expect this; I was shocked. Against Dimitrov I was scared, but he got through everything.”

However, the claims of a tear have raised eyebrows among many Australian fans, especially given the straight-sets wins in the second week of the tournament. There had been speculation during the Australian Open whether the injury was actually legitimate, but Tiley insisted he had been shown scans showing the severity of the injury.

However, there is still some skepticism surrounding these claims. Former Socceroos, Cricket Australia and Liverpool team doctor Dr Peter Brukner said radio station RSN that it was possible that the hamstring tear was the more manageable side of things.

There are different types of hamstring tears without going into great detail. Your usual tear is in the middle of the hamstring; you stop as if shot. It’s a three- to four-week hamstring, he said.

There is another type which is a tear at the edge of the muscle; we call it a myofascial tear. In our opinion, an injury lasting 10-14 days. I assume Djokovic had such an injury.

By my calculations, it was exactly 10 days from when he did that to his first game at the Aus Open on Tuesday.

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