Novak Djokovic after his 9th Australian Open title: Hardest win emotionally

Novak Djokovic said his ninth Australian Open title came after one of the toughest tournaments of his career with a muscletear injury that is still ldquonot healedrdquo and attacks from the mediaSerbiarsquos Novak Djokovic celebrates beating Russiarsquos Daniil Medvedev in the Australian Open menrsquos singles in Melbourne yesterdayDespite the challenges the World No 1 snuffed out the threat from inform Russian Daniil Medvedev 75 62 62 to reinforce his status as the king of Melbourne Park and collect his 18th Grand Slam crown But there were numerous hurdles to jump not least having to quarantine for 14 days and the negative reaction to a letter he wrote to Tennis Australia pretournament which was interpreted as a ldquopetulant and selfishrdquo list of demandsTough quarantineldquoEmotionally this was one of the hardest tournaments Irsquove ever had to be honestrdquo the Serbian top seed told Australiarsquos Channel Nine on Sunday ldquoWe had quarantine and a lot of things happening in the media then the letter that I wrote as ideas and recommendations that I got for players was misinterpreted as a list of demands Then the next thing I was persona non grata here in this country So it was tough dealing with all of this and then getting injured in the third roundrdquo he added of the abdominal tear that almost forced him to pull out ldquoIt was a rollercoaster ride I think that makes it even sweeter for me and a lot of positives from this tournament without a doubtrdquoDjokovic with his nine Australian Open winners trophies PicsAFPHis coach Goran Ivanisevic said the criticism Djokovic had to deal with were unfair ldquoActually he needed this victory so badly There is somebody upstairs who see all this unfairness with a lot of media and people they doing to him He tried to help the players Itrsquos his fault like everybody else attacking him Nobody else to attack so letrsquos attack Novakrdquo said Ivanisevic Djokovic sustained his injury during his thirdround clash against Taylor Fritz After refusing to reveal the nature of the injury during the tournament he said on Sunday it was an abdominal muscle tear ldquoI went for a MRI it showed a tear Some people question whether there was a tear For me it was a huge obstacle I guess wersquore all different Maybe I have a great ability to heal I just managed somehow with pills and painkillers and stuffrdquoAbdominal tearDjokovic said he spent 10 out of 14 waking hours on the physiorsquos table at one stage for treatment ldquoItrsquos not healed Irsquom going for another MRI tomorrow before I travel Irsquoll take some time offrdquo said Djokovic whose win raised his stranglehold on the No 1 ranking marking his 311th week on top from Monday surpassing Roger Federerrsquos record of 3101545 crDjokovicrsquos prize purse 213 million at this Australian Open was the lowest since 2014 Last year the champion earned 312 million Organisers said the total prize purse was spread to help more players earn money through this tough pandemic yearThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever