Djokovic injury claim faces scrutiny as Olympian and doctor weigh in

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Craig Tiley’s claim that Novak Djokovic won the Australian Open with a three-centimetre hamstring tear has been doubted by both another athlete and a doctor. The Aussie Open tournament director recently revealed the news after Djokovic said he would be providing “proof” of his injury after he was accused of faking.

While Djokovic is yet to share any extra information or physical evidence of the hamstring injury he carried during his run to a historic 10th Australian Open title, the tournament director revealed that the 35-year-old had been playing with a three-centimetre tear in the muscle during an interview with SEN Sportsday. But Tiley’s claim has now come under scrutiny as two professionals questioned whether it was possible.

“This guy I did see, he had a three-centimetre tear in his hammy,” Tiley said following the world No 1’s run to a record-equalling 22nd Grand Slam men’s singles title, claiming that he had seen the scans. Some have since questioned the Tennis Australia CEO’s claims with Djokovic yet to confirm the information himself, and an Olympian has now quizzed how likely it would be to compete and win with such a significant injury.

But five-time Australian Olympics basketball player Andrew Gaze wasn’t convinced, as he told another SEN’s The Run Home: “That’s a sizeable tear when it comes to the hamstring in particular. I find it very hard to believe, that’s for sure. The improvement he got from a three-centimetre tear to wear he got at the end of the tournament, it’s a remarkable healing process he went through.”

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Although Gaze didn’t know whether it was possible to play at a high level with a hamstring tear, he also admitted that it wasn’t difficult to believe that a player of Djokovic’s abilities would be able to put that to one side so he could make history. Gaze added: “Given the way he played it’s hard to think it could be a three-centimetre tear, but the fact it’s a champion and he’s able to power through and dig deep, why should we doubt it?”

And a sports doctor has echoed Gaze’s sentiment, questioning whether Tiley had wrongly understood the information given by team Djokovic before declaring that the Serb had torn his hamstring. But he didn’t doubt that the 22-time Grand Slam winner had it in him to push on.

“It’s virtually unheard of… but I guess it’s possible,” Peter Larkins said, also speaking to SEN. “I wonder if Craig Tiley is misinterpreting what he was told… I’m struggling to believe that it was a tear.”

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Giving his own opinion on what the injury could have been instead, he said: “It may have been an area of inflammation that was three centimetres.” But Larkins was convinced that Djokovic did have an injury of some sort and was still impressed by the Serb’s ability to battle through regardless of what the official diagnosis was. 

“It would have been an exceptional, out of the box performance if true. I know he’s tough and managed it exceptionally, he was definitely carrying an injury,” he concluded.

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