Djokovic to ‘reassess’ after exit in Melbourne

Novak Djokovic must go back to the drawing board after suffering a recurrence of his elbow problems in a fourth-round loss to Chung Hyeon at the Australian Open.

The former world number one came into the tournament without having played a match since Wimbledon and was compromised again in a 7-6 (7/4) 7-5 7-6 (7/3) defeat by 21-year-old Chung, who played an extraordinary match.

Djokovic received treatment at the end of the first set and grimaced his way through the rest of the match, and he must now decide what path he wishes to take. The six-time Australian Open champion left open the possibility of surgery when speaking ahead of the tournament, and he said of the elbow: “Unfortunately, it’s not great. At the end of the first set, it started hurting more. So I had to deal with it until the end of the match.