Andy Roddick expresses astonishment on seeing Novak Djokovic quickly return from his injury after the Australian Open

Novak Djokovic has endured a difficult start to his 2025 season, picking up a painful injury that saw him miss several weeks of action.

Andy Roddick expresses astonishment on seeing Novak Djokovic quickly return from his injury after the Australian Open

Andy Roddick (in crcle) and Novak Djokovic (via Instagram)

Novak Djokovic is set to play at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells where he will be competing for his 100th career title. Along with Roger Federer, Djokovic holds the record for the most number of titles in this prestigious ATP Masters 1000 tournament, winning it 5 times. This marks the Serb’s fourth tournament of the year.

He started off his 2025 season with the Brisbane International, where he lost to Reilly Opelka in a major upset in the quarterfinals. At the Australian Open, he had to retire from his semifinal match due to a painful hamstring injury. He retuned to tour at the Qatar Open but surprisingly lost his opening round match to Matteo Berrettini.

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Former World No. 1 and now a well-known podcaster, Andy Roddick, expressed his astonishment at seeing Novak Djokovic return to tour three weeks after he retired from the Australian Open. In his podcast, Served with Andy Roddick, Roddick said that he was anticipating at least a six-week recovery period after showing an MRI scan of Djokovic’s injury to an orthopedic friend.

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Sent it to Orthopedic friend of mine he’s like oh gosh normally that would take you know a while it’d be six weeks. So I’m like oh in my mind I’m going oh we’re not going to maybe Monte Carlo as a nice little little home game for him now. But we’ve seen him twice. We saw him you know two weeks ago in Doha and he’s playing Indian Wells and you know great for them you lose Sinner you gain Djokovic, that’s a good offset for them to not have the number one player in the world. But all of a sudden you know I’m sure at the end of Australia, Indian Wells thought and Tommy Haas thought they had no chance of Novak posting for this.”

Andy Roddick via Served with Andy Roddick podcast

After his Australian Open exit, Djokovic had uploaded a scan of his injury on X as a response to those who claimed that he was faking his injury. With the nature of the injury, Roddick was not expecting Djokovic to return until the Monte Carlo Masters, which would take place in early April.

Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek are set to defend their Indian Wells title

Despite the absence of World No. 1 Jannik Sinner from tour due to his suspension, the Indian Wells Open is expected to be an exciting tournament. The previous year’s champions- Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek, are set to defend their titles.

Carlos Alcaraz Iga Siwatek
Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Siwatek at Indian Wells (via X)

ATP World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz has had a fairly good 2025 season so far, winning one title as well, i.e. the Rotterdam Open. The Spaniard is looking to go for a three-peat this time at the tournament, a feat which only Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have accomplished so far.

Meanwhile WTA World No. 2 Iga Swiatek is yet to win a title since her Roland Garros victory last year. The Pole has had a rather heartbreaking season so far, where she has been mostly a match or two away from clinching a title.

If Swiatek and Alcaraz win the Indian Wells Open this year, it would mark a third title in this tournament for both. Additonally, Swiatek would also become the first woman to clinch this title thrice. This Indian Wells tournament also marks the return of the 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys back to tour.