28 January,2009 07:21 AM IST | | A Correspondent
A day before conceding his quarter-final match to American Roddick, Djokovic had voiced his displeasure about heat and late night matches
After third seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic had disposed off Cypriot Marcus Baghdatis in the fourth round of the Australian Open on Monday, the Serbian had voiced his displeasure over late night matches.
The fourth round match began at 11.10 PM (Australian time) on Saturday and ended at 02: 26 AM on Sunday.
End of campaign
Yesterday, not having recovered from the late night marathon in the previous round and not helped by soaring temperature, Djokovic had to concede the quarter-final match to Andy Roddick after he suffered from cramps and turned pale in 35 degrees while trailing the American 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 2-6, 1-2. He immediately signaled the end.
"People could see that I was struggling with movement, the main reason is cramping and soreness in the whole body," said Djokovic yesterday, adding that organisers needed to look again at their heat policy.
Need to discuss
"That's something we have to discuss in the future. Of course, it's concerning a lot of players," he said.
"As a tournament or as a tennis fan, you don't want to see a player retiring. You didn't pay for a ticket to come to see somebody retiring the match."
The seventh seeded Roddick, looking for another Grand Slam title to go with his US Open crown in 2003, was playing high-class tennis when Djokovic withdrew and may well have progressed regardless. But he said the victory was hollow.
"I feel for Novak because he worked so hard to win the title and for him not to get a fair chance to defend it, it's too bad," Roddick said.
Djokovic seemed to have predicted his state as he was very vociferous about the conditions after his match against Baghdatis.
"You have this unique excitement when you play the night matches. It's really fun. You make history by going into the 2:00, 3:00, 4:00 in the morning," Djokovic said.
Time to compromise
"But on the other hand I don't think that this really benefits a lot of people that we played that late. Hopefully in the future we can make some compromise."
There was no indication that Djokovic had any problems over the early stages yesterday, but at the start of the third set he started looking towards the players' box and soon called for a medical time-out.
He tried to play again but looked lethargic and eventually talked to the doctor once more, deciding he couldn't continue, his title defence over.
