Top seed and defending champion Djokovic<\/a> was due to play Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals<\/a> on Wednesday (5th June).<\/span><\/p>\n Djokovic\u2019s withdrawal means Ruud will automatically progress to the semi-finals.<\/span><\/p>\n The injury has ended his hopes of bagging a 25th Grand Slam title and will result in him losing the world No 1 ranking to Italian Jannik Sinner later this month.<\/span><\/p>\n It remains to be seen what it will mean for his chances of competing at Wimbledon, where he is a seven-time champion.<\/span><\/p>\n So why has Djokovic withdrawn from the tennis tournament<\/a>? Read on for everything you need to know.<\/span><\/p>\n Read more: French Open TV coverage<\/a> | French Open prize money<\/a> | French Open seeded players<\/a> | French Open British players<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Djokovic has pulled out of the tournament due to a\u00a0medical meniscus tear in his right knee.<\/span><\/p>\n In a statement released on Instagram<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday (4th June), Djokovic said: <\/span>\u201cI am really sad to announce that I have to withdraw from Roland Garros.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI played with my heart and gave my all in yesterday\u2019s match and unfortunately, due to a medial meniscus tear in my right knee, my team and I had to make a tough decision after careful consideration and consultation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He continued: \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p> Djokovic had been dealing with a knee injury ahead of his victory over <\/span>Francisco Cerundolo on Monday, in which he <\/span>slipped on the court during the second set and received medical attention several times.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFor the last couple weeks I have had slight discomfort, I would call it, in the right knee, but I haven\u2019t had an injury that would be concerning me at all,\u201d Djokovic said after the game.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut I actually felt great coming into the match \u2013 as good as I could under the circumstances \u2013 and played really well first set.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThen in the third game of the second set, I slipped, one of the many times that I slipped and fell today. That affected the knee.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Sport<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Djokovic\u2019s withdrawal means Casper Ruud will progress straight to the semi-finals. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":52683,"template":"","categories":[1,7,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-has-novak-djokovic-withdrawn-from-the-french-open-scaled.jpg",2560,1729,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-has-novak-djokovic-withdrawn-from-the-french-open-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-has-novak-djokovic-withdrawn-from-the-french-open-300x203.jpg",300,203,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-has-novak-djokovic-withdrawn-from-the-french-open-768x519.jpg",768,519,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-has-novak-djokovic-withdrawn-from-the-french-open-1024x692.jpg",800,541,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-has-novak-djokovic-withdrawn-from-the-french-open-1536x1037.jpg",1536,1037,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-has-novak-djokovic-withdrawn-from-the-french-open-2048x1383.jpg",2048,1383,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Djokovic\u2019s withdrawal means Casper Ruud will progress straight to the semi-finals.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/52682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Why has Novak Djokovic withdrawn from the French Open?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Novak](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/Novak-Djokovic-next-match-3c6197c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Novak")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"