Kim Clijsters echoed Jelena Dokic’s thoughts by rejecting ugly accusations that Novak Djokovic was “faking” an injury or exaggerating its severity. Djokovic was forced to retire due to injury in the semi-final against Alexander Zverev at the Australian Open after suffering a hamstring tear in the quarter-final against Carlos Alcaraz.

The incident came after many people claimed that Djokovic was just acting when he grabbed his hamstring against Alcaraz, especially after he went on to win in four sets. After being forced to retire in the semi-final, Djokovic posted a photo of his torn hamstring for “all the injury experts” who had questioned him. The Serbian star has been questioned on several occasions throughout his career about the severity of his injuries, having won the Australian Open in 2021 and 2023 with hamstring and abdominal injuries. And earlier this week, Rafa Nadal’s uncle and former coach Toni Nadal fuelled the controversy with some shocking comments.

Toni Nadal’s shocking comments about Novak Djokovic

Referring to the boos from the crowd when Djokovic retired against Zverev, Toni wrote to the Spanish media: “I understand that the public showed their frustration and anger at being deprived of the spectacle they expected after having paid for it. The main reason is that, for many years, there has been a growing skepticism around Novak, due to his exaggerated expressions or gestures, which has led people to doubt the authenticity of his injuries.”

Toni questioned why Djokovic suddenly announced his withdrawal without calling the coach or requesting a medical time-out. “When a tennis player has physical problems in a match like this, they usually postpone the decision to withdraw until the last minute. They call the physiotherapist, try to play a few games with limitations and only when they realise the inevitable, they decide to withdraw. On several occasions, we have seen Novak put in similar performances, using facial expressions and body language contradictory to what we see on the court, which raises doubts about the authenticity of his problems.”

Kim Clijsters agrees with Jelena Dokic about Djokovic

But speaking on the ‘Served with Andy Roddick’ podcast on Thursday, four-time Grand Slam champion Clijsters completely rejected that view. The 2011 Australian Open champion noted that even when Djokovic needed knee surgery after the French Open last year, the severity of the injury was still in question because he reached the Wimbledon final just weeks later.

“The problem with Novak is that we are too used to seeing him overcome everything with the recovery efforts he has made and with his mental strength,” Clijsters said. “We almost think it is normal for him to recover from any injury throughout the tournament and then people question whether he is telling the truth or not when that happens.

“That’s where I feel like it’s pretty frustrating when you have a problem, you don’t want people to question whether you’re being honest or not. It’s annoying. I feel like with him, people question it a lot. I remember people saying, ‘I don’t even know if he actually had knee surgery.’”

Speaking shortly after Djokovic’s withdrawal, Dokic commented: “We have seen Djokovic throughout his career play through injuries and continue through tournaments without retiring. Only a serious knee injury at last year’s French Open forced him to retire when he was unable to play in the quarter-finals. So if he has decided that he can’t continue, it’s because he really can’t.”