Novak Djokovic pulls out of the Adelaide International tourney

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

There will be no Novak Djokovic in the warm-up tournament for the upcoming Australian Open Grand Slam event.

When the majority already expected the Serbian living legend to play again due to a two-month recovery after a grueling Hellenic Open campaign last Nov. 2025, thousands of tennis fans again waited for nothing as Djokovic won’t be seeing action in the Adelaide International tournament.

The Adelaide International, which served as a warm-up competition for the first Grand Slam of the year, was already a staple for Djokovic after winning the title in 2024.

“To all my fans in Adelaide, unfortunately I’m not quite physically ready to compete,” Djokovic wrote in a social media post.

“It’s personally very disappointing to me, as I have such great memories of winning the title there two years ago. I was really excited about returning, as it truly felt like playing at home.”

In retrospect, Djokovic also canceled his slot in the ATP Finals, the highly anticipated season-ending championship tournament of the ATP.

In a surprising turn of events, Djokovic revealed that he re-aggravated his shoulder injury during the grand finals match of the Hellenic Open, where he faced Lorenzo Musetti and won, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

It was a grueling grand finals matchup for Djokovic after fighting back from a 0-1 set deficit.

To make things worse, the third and final set got dragged to 12 long game sets.

Djokovic admitted that he fought through the injury, and climbing back on the pedestal in Athens became the best gift he received after losing in Shanghai.

With the come-from-behind win in Athens, Djokovic moved two ATP major titles away from equalizing Roger Federer’s 103, but he will have to be in form if he wants to surpass Jimmy Connors, who tops the record with 109 titles.

“My focus is now on my preparation for the Australian Open, and I look forward to arriving in Melbourne soon,” Djokovic added.