Tennis-Djokovic’s Rome pullout a worrying sign, says Courier

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(Reuters) -Novak Djokovic’s shock withdrawal from next week’s Italian Open should be a huge worry for the 24-times Grand Slam champion’s fans as he heads to the French Open without winning a match on clay this season, former Roland Garros winner Jim Courier said.

Djokovic, who turns 38 three days before the year’s second Grand Slam begins on May 25, has been woefully out of form and was comprehensively beaten in his opening matches at Masters tournaments in Monte Carlo and Madrid this month.

The Serb was expected to jumpstart his clay campaign in Rome before returning to Paris, where he won Olympic gold last year, but on Tuesday he said he was skipping the Masters 1000 event, without providing a reason.

“That’s troubling. It’s worrying for me as a Novak fan,” Courier, who won back-to-back Roland Garros titles in 1991 and 1992, said on the Tennis Channel.

The American added that Rome would have been the perfect venue for Djokovic to find his rhythm as it had similar conditions to Paris without the challenge of playing at altitude in Madrid.

“If you’re going to play one between Madrid and Rome (then) Rome would be the one you would want to play to get ready for Roland Garros,” he said.

Djokovic, who is chasing a 100th tour-level title and first since his ATP Finals triumph in 2023, said after his loss in Madrid that he was trying to come to terms with a “new reality” in tennis where he is just “trying to win a match or two”.

“I don’t know what to make of it, but I don’t like the way it feels in the gut,” Courier added.

“It’s a very strange thing to announce a pullout now, well in advance of it, and we’ll see what it all means when we get to Roland Garros.”

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)