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Novak Djokovic at Australian Open
Australian Open, Novak Djokovic, Tennis News

‘Novak Djokovic sometimes pretends he’s giving up,’ says Patrick Mouratoglou


Novak Djokovic ‘sometimes pretends he’s giving up’ in matches when he’s in trouble, says Patrick Mouratoglou.

Djokovic is through to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open after beating both Taylor Fritz and Milos Raonic whilst carrying a abdominal injury.

The world number one surprised many when he took on Raonic despite saying two days earlier he did not think he would be able to recover in time, but Mouratoglou insists Djokovic does not fake injury.

However, he does think Djokovic plays mind games with his opponents to gain an advantage.

“For Novak, I think it is worse [than Nadal’s]. Because it’s the abdominals, and the abdominals, you use them on every shot,” Mouratoglou said.

“A lot of players like to have a little pain here and there, because it takes pressure off them.

“Now, we’re talking about champions, and champions never escape pressure. Champions accept pressure, embrace pressure and learn to deal with the pressure.

“Sometimes during the matches, Novak plays a bit with the mind of the opponent when he’s in trouble. He’s done it a lot of times in the past.

“When he’s down, sometimes he pretends he’s giving up. He’s not really there, and then suddenly, boom, he plays again.

“This is something that he does, but he doesn’t fake an injury during a tournament.


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.