In the end, it wasn’t how Novak Djokovic would have liked. Despite putting on a courageous display, the Serb bowed out of the French Open in a saddening end to his title defense. Ahead of his French Open quarterfinal match against Casper Ruud, Djokovic pulled out of the tournament citing a knee injury. However, parallels were drawn with Roger Federer suffering a similar fate back in 2016.

Djokovic took to his official Instagram handle to announce his withdrawal from the clay-court Grand Slam tournament. Sharing a note via an Instagram story, the Serb wrote, “I am really sad to announce that I have to withdraw from Roland Garros. I played with my heart and gave my all in yesterday’s match and unfortunately, due to a medical meniscus tear in my right knee, my team and I had to make a tough decision after careful consideration and consultation. I wish the best of luck to the players competing this week and sincerely thank the incredible fans for all of the love and continued support. See you soon.”

However, like Djokovic, Federer had suffered a similar fate in 2016. After the Swiss maestro’s Australian Open semifinal match against Djokovic in 2016, Federer felt some pain in his knee while bathing. Upon checking, Federer’s worst fears came true as he suffered a torn meniscus that required him to have the first surgery of his career.

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Later, during an interview, Federer explained how he came to know about his injury. That was a significant moment in Federer’s career as the injury massively affected his longevity on the tour.

Roger Federer was left shell-shocked when coming to know about his injury

The Swiss maestro went on to lose his 2016 Australian Open semifinal match against Novak Djokovic. However, the worst was yet to come for the former World Number 1. Describing the events that led to him discovering about his knee injury, Federer spilled the details during an interview once.

He revealed, “I just lost my semifinal match at the Australian Open and I woke up in the morning and I was tired, obviously because pressure fell off, the match was over. And my kids went to the pool in the morning and I woke up probably around 10 in the morning and I came back and I was like okay let’s jump in the shower and the girls were like, ‘we want to take  bath’ and they were like no shower days and I was like no bath days.”

Further, he went on to add, “I was like okay let’s bath I am tired. So I go and opened the water and as I am turning and I heard a click in my knee and I go back and was like that was strange. I went to the zoo in the afternoon but then I was limping like I can’t believe. And I am like what’s happened and I go to the doctor, torn meniscus and I had to do surgery.”

Following his injury, Federer went on to miss the French Open and the US Open that year. It remains to be seen how many tournaments Djokovic will miss owing to his knee injury. Nonetheless, Djokovic is a real fighter and will aim to make a comeback soon.