Tough match schedules seen as reasoning for Novak Djokovic's demise says Coco Gauff

Novak Djokovic played back-to-back five set matches against Lorenzo Musetti with the first not finishing until 3:09am before he return two days later in the day session in order to play again against Francisco Cerundolo. Coco Gauff sees that as the likely tipping point when it came to his injury at the 2024 French Open.

Djokovic suffered a meniscus tear during his win over Cerundolo with the current and outgoing World No.1 seeming to be injured while on the verge of defeat before finding something in the latter stages. But it was at a price as he soon revealed post match that he was a doubt to face Casper Ruud depending on an MRI.

That came back and he required knee surgery which will likely take him out of contention at least for Wimbledon. Gauff said that he was obviously struggling and that the tournament could've done better when it came to scheduling.

"I saw, I actually, you know, Brad [Gilbert] was actually the first person to tell me," Gauff said. "Uh, he's always on top of everything that's going on on site. So, um, I was very surprised.

"I watched this match against the last, like, two sets or three sets against Francisco Cerundolo. And Yeah. I mean, I saw that he was obviously physically struggling and I honestly thought, I think everybody thought, well not everybody, but I thought he was on the verge of losing," she added.

"And I don't know something about him and I thought when you get through a match like that, that he would win the title but um, obviously I feel like I don't want to put any words in his mouth, but I think it probably came just from the late start," the youngster said. And it was unfortunate that he had to, you know, the matches went five sets back to back. So I think it was just a combination of those two things. Hopefully the injury's not too serious and he can be ready for Wimbledon."