Novak Djokovic withdraws from French Open with knee injury

Novak Djokovic, who was limping during his second consecutive five-set marathon match Monday, withdrew from the French Open on Tuesday with a torn right medial meniscus.

Djokovic will cede his status as the world’s No. 1 player to Jannik Sinner. The 37-year-old Serb gutted out a 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory Monday over Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo and was to have played Casper Ruud in a quarterfinal Wednesday.

Djokovic came into the tournament with a minor knee injury and conceded after Monday’s match that he wasn’t certain he could continue. An MRI exam revealed the extent of the injury, and Roland Garros officials made the announcement during Sinner’s 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) victory over Grigor Dimitrov.

“Good thing about the Slam is that you have a day between that will allow hopefully the healing process to happen more efficiently for me,” Djokovic said Monday. “That’s it. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow or after tomorrow if I’ll be able to step out on the court and play. You know, I hope so. Let’s see what happens.”

The knee had been bothering him for some time, he added, but he tweaked it early in the second set and required anti-inflammatory medication to finish the match in which he passed Roger Federer as the record holder for Grand Slam match wins with 370.

“I was not able to change directions the way I wanted. I was not able to run on many of the drop shots he played, and he saw it,” he said. “Francisco saw it, and so he played a lot of drop shots where most of them, I just looked at and that’s it. Didn’t move.”

On Saturday, rain delayed the start of Djokovic’s third-round match with Lorenzo Musetti and it lasted 4 hours 29 minutes, with Djokovic winning, 7-5, 6-7 (8-6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, at 3:08 a.m. Paris time.

Both five-set Djokovic victories were thrillers filled with the kind of improbable shots he has made seem ordinary. But the season as a whole has not been a good one. Djokovic has not won a tournament and has struggled against opponents who are ranked far outside the top 10.

Now, the tournaments he aims for — Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Paris Olympics — may be jeopardized if he requires surgery. Already, his grip on the No. 1 ranking has slipped away, with Sinner propelled to the top spot by victories in the Australian Open and the Miami Open, along with semifinal appearances in Indian Wells, Calif., and Monte Carlo.