Australian Open: Novak Djokovic in doubt for fourth round due to injury

Novak Djokovic fans are worried that the world number one might not be able to continue his 2021 Australian Open campaign. The defending champion has stated that he may not be able to play his fourth round match after struggling to beat American Taylor Fritz in the third round.

Djokovic was clearly struggling through the late match that lasted five sets. He has an injury to his side that was clearly hampering his movement. In the end, he managed to scrape through 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 3-6 4-6 6-2.

In the fourth round, Milos Raonic is waiting to face the Serb. The match is scheduled to take place in the evening session on Sunday at the Rod Laver Arena. However, after defeating Fritz, Djokovic said, "I know it's a tear and I don't know if I will recover from that in two days. I don't know if I will step on court."

If he pulls out, he will not be successful in defending the title he won in Melbourne last year. More importantly, he will also lose the opportunity to chase his 18th Grand Slam title. As it stands, he is three titles away from the pair of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal who each have 20 titles under their belts.

Australia is a special event for the Serb, having won here eight times including the last two. Now, his hat-trick is in jeopardy.

Speaking about how much he was struggling, he said, "In the third and fourth set I just served and couldn't do much with the returns. I was just putting in two first serves."

On a positive note, he did say that he felt some improvement towards the end of the match. "I just tried to stay in there. I was hoping that whatever was happening was going to feel better and towards the end of the fourth it started to feel better," he said, as quoted by the BBC.

It was an unusual evening at the Australian Open, as the audience was asked to vacate the venue when the match stretched towards midnight. The state of Victoria had announced a snap lockdown from 11:59 on Friday evening, but the Australian Open organisers thought it wise to still allow the paying crowd to come in throughout the Friday sessions.

The lockdown was called due to an outbreak of the UK variant of the novel coronavirus that had been detected stemming from a quarantine hotel in the city. Despite this, about 8,000 people were allowed to enter Rod Laver arena.

The spectators were asked to leave at 11:30 and were told to make their way home before the lockdown officially began. At this point, it was the middle of the fourth set, with Frisk leading 3-2.

Action was stopped as the crowed vacated the arena. When the match finally resumed in an almost empty venue, the momentum had shifted and Djokovic was eventually able to claim the victory in the fifth set.

Fans will not be allowed until Wednesday, with organisers hoping that fans can return from Thursday onward.