PARIS – The first obvious sign of trouble for Novak Djokovic came when he stepped onto Court Philippe Chatrier with a rather large square of beige athletic tape on the back of his neck.
The next indication came on the very first point of his French Open quarterfinal against Pablo Carreño Busta, when Djokovic let a ball toss drop and abandoned his serve mid-motion.
Soon enough, Djokovic was flexing and stretching his left arm or hitting it with his racket. Off to a slow start Wednesday night, Djokovic received massages from a trainer, righted himself and beat Carreño Busta 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the semifinals at Roland Garros for the 10th time.
“I definitely didn’t feel great coming into the court today. A few things happened in the warmup. I had some neck issues and some shoulder issues. I’ll just say that. I mean, I don’t want to get really too much into it. Obviously I’m still in the tournament, so I don’t want to reveal too much. I’m feeling OK,” said the top-ranked Djokovic, who will face No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas in Friday’s semifinals. “As the match progressed, I warmed up my body, and the pain kind of faded away. It allowed me to play better and better and feel better.”
He is right-handed, but the left side is important, too. He uses it for his two-fisted backhand and to throw the ball in the air on serves. Whatever impediment there was to his play, whatever the pain level might have been, the problem was, at the very least, a distraction.