Djokovic continued to make history on Bercy on Sunday as he defeated Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-3 to break his own records by lifting a seventh Paris Masters trophy and his 40th overall Masters 1000 title. It was arguably the best he had looked all week after he was pushed to the brink in his round of 16, the quarter-final and the semi-final matches against Tallon Griekspoor, Holger Rune and Andrey Rublev respectively.
Earlier in the week, the top seed revealed that he had “spent more time on the toilet seat than on the court” while battling a stomach bug. After lifting the trophy, the 36-year-old said the victory was made even sweeter by the fact that he was able to fight through illness and survive in some tough matches. As Djokovic reflected on his virus, he was asked for some advice on helping someone else battling a stomach bug.
“My wife texts me and asks me, could you maybe give a hint of how you recover or what kind of medicine you took, because many people have stomach bugs. She sadly suffers a lot from it. She said maybe Novak could help,” a reporter told the world No 1 in his post-match press conference.
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“I cannot. I’m not a doctor so I’m unable to give medical advice,” Djokovic smiled. While he couldn’t offer any help, the 24-time Major winner opened up on his own experience with the virus and admitted that he barely ate during his week in Bercy. He explained: “I guess, you know, everyone is different, but for me hydration is the key, I think, for anything, really.
“I can’t talk on behalf of your wife or anybody else what kind of diet helps or doesn’t help. I couldn’t eat much really these days, so I probably would eat only once in a day, and then I wouldn’t eat anything. Just be on liquids, because anything that I, you know, would put in my mouth, it would go out very quickly. And then of course you feel dizzy, you feel dehydrated all the time. You feel weak.”
While Djokovic had been put in a tough position during the tournament, he explained how he was able to push through and finish the week with the trophy in his hand once again. “But I guess for a professional athlete, once you are out on the court, it’s basically very clear,” he continued.
“Either you let the circumstances and the feelings that you have at that moment master you or you try to master them in a way. So there’s no in between. So you either fold, retire, or just, you know, kind of give away the match, or you try to draw the energy from the adrenaline that you’re feeling from the crowd, from the momentum that you’re feeling on the court. So that’s what kind of helped me to have I think, extra push, extra energy this week.”
Circling back to the original question, Djokovic grinned and added: “But I experience the stomach bugs like anybody else. Maybe for me it lasted shorter than for your wife, I’m not sure, but it was three, four days of big struggle.
“So today is the first day that I have been actually feeling that it’s behind me. Sorry I couldn’t give any medicine advice or, you know, the cures. There is no cure, I guess.”
With 40 Masters 1000 titles now to his name, Djokovic explained that this one was extra special given the circumstances. “A very challenging week,” he said after lifting the 97th overall trophy of his career.
“I think also off the court, you know, dealing with the stomach virus that really took a lot of energy out of me, but somehow, yeah, I managed to, I guess, find this extra energy when it was most needed, particularly in the days of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, where I was probably closer to losing these matches than winning. So considering what happened in the last six, seven days, this win is definitely one of the most special wins in the Masters 1000 category.”
