Novak Djokovic’s miserable season continued on Tuesday, as the defending French Open champion was forced to withdraw from the Grand Slam before his quarterfinal match due to a knee injury.
World number one and 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic was scheduled to face Ruud on Wednesday for a spot in the final four.
Djokovic overcame Ruud in last year’s final at Roland Garros. As a result, Ruud will face either fourth seed Alexander Zverev or 11th seed Alex de Minaur in Friday’s quarterfinals.
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Following Monday’s five-set win against Francisco Cerundolo, Djokovic, 37, questioned his fitness and admitted he needed anti-inflammatory medicines to get through the match.
Djokovic lamented the “slippery” Philippe Chatrier surface for the injury he experienced early in the second set of his 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over Cerundolo.
“Due to a torn medial meniscus in his right knee (discovered during an MRI scan performed today), Novak Djokovic… has been forced to withdraw from the Roland Garros tournament,” organisers said in a statement.
“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,” Djokovic said after the match.
“For the last couple weeks I have had, I would say, slight discomfort, I would call it that way, in the right knee, but I haven’t had an injury that would be concerning me at all.
“I was playing a few tournaments with it, and no issues until today.”
Following Djokovic’s withdrawal from the French Open, Jannik Sinner will become Italy’s first men’s world number one next week.
The Serbian great arrived at the tournament with his top ranking under threat from Sinner, who was sure to dethrone Djokovic if the latter failed to make the final in Paris.
Djokovic has spent a record-breaking 428 weeks at the top of the rankings.
His setback continues his season’s worst start since 2018, when he went without a win until winning Wimbledon.
To make matters worse, he was hit on the head by a metal water bottle in Rome last month, followed by stomach difficulties in Geneva.
Djokovic recently withdrew from a Grand Slam in the 2019 US Open, when a shoulder injury caused him to retire against Stan Wawrinka in the last 16.