Novak Djokovic insists the wrist injury that forced him to pull out of a Wimbledon warm-up event won’t affect his bid to win the grasscourt grand slam event.
After being troubled by the right wrist problem since Monte Carlo in April, Djokovic has been taking extra care not to aggravate the injury.
The 27-year-old felt it may have been in danger of flaring due to the tricky transition from clay to grasscourts and that prompted him to pull out of an exhibition match in London.
But he has practised pain-free over the past few days and the 2011 Wimbledon champion expects to be fit enough to make a strong bid to win the All England Club crown for the second time.
“I played Monte Carlo under strange conditions, under a lot of pain,” Djokovic told reporters at Wimbledon on Saturday.
“I decided to skip Madrid, which was a good decision, because I played pain-free in Rome and Roland Garros.
“Right now I don’t feel any pain. But I felt like when I’m changing surfaces, especially from clay to grass, in the opening few days of the practice here got a little bit of a strange sensation in the wrist.”
The Serb has won just one grand slam title in the past two years and has lost in five of his last six major finals, including an agonising French Open defeat to Rafael Nadal earlier this month.
In the circumstances, it was important to get away from tennis for a few days to recover his composure and he headed off to Ibiza for a holiday instead of playing one of the Wimbledon warm-up events.
“It helps. Because as much as we love this sport, you need to balance and try to have some recovery time which can recharge your batteries mentally most of all.”
Djokovic is ranked second in the world behind Nadal, but he received a boost when Wimbledon chiefs bumped him up to the top seeding ahead of the Spaniard due to his superior recent record on grass.
He will also have former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker to lean on for advice after the German joined his coaching team earlier this year.
With so many recent grand slam final defeats on his CV, Djokovic, who starts his Wimbledon campaign against Andrey Golubev, hopes Becker’s grasscourt experience can tip the balance of power back in his favour.
“I have to try to improve myself not just on the court, but understand the mental aspect, why I am not able to win a grand slam title in last couple of years,” he said.
“So that’s something to work on. It’s one of the reasons why Boris is onboard.”