Novak Djokovic: 'I can relate to what Andy Murray is going through'
Novak Djokovic largely spoke about Andy Murray's retirement from tennis in a pre-tournament press conference at the Australian Open on Sunday. The Serbian player trained with the Brit on Thursday defeating him 6-1 4-1 in a practice match.
Asked if he expected Murray to take such a hard decision, Djokovic replied: 'I wasn't, no. To be honest, I wasn't. But I did see, it was very obvious for everyone, you saw it, you didn't need to be on court to notice that he's struggling, that he's not moving as well as he normally does. We've seen so many years of Andy Murray being one of the fittest guys on the tour, running around the court, getting always an extra ball back. I think to that extent, we are kind of similar. Our trajectory to the professional tennis world was pretty much similar. His birthday is one week before mine.
We've grown together playing junior events. We played lots of epic matches in the professional circuit. Our games are quite alike. Obviously to see him struggle so much and go through so much pain, it's very sad and it hurts me as his longtime friend, colleague, rival. I've nurtured very good relationship with him on and off the court. I'm proud to have that kind of relationship that will go on hopefully for many more years, regardless of whether we get to play against each other or not, whether he continues playing, whatever happens. As I wrote in my post, I will carry beautiful memories from the court and off the court, as well, with him included. It's just sad. As someone that has been through a major injury myself recently, I can probably relate a little bit to what he's going through. I think his injury of the hips is something probably certainly far more worse than mine, my injury, because it's obviously something that he's been carrying for a while, for couple of years.'
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from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2FHvd7P
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