Novak Djokovic may be one of the fittest athletes in the world but the world number one wrestled with rare feelings of being hopelessly out of shape during a workout with retired sumo professionals on Monday. The 32-year-old Serb, who is in Tokyo to play in the Japan Open Tennis Championships, visited a traditional dohyo or a sumo ring to watch the wrestlers during their morning practice before unsuccessfully attempting to make one of them budge.
“I felt I’m out of shape (for sumo) a little bit … with a few more kilos, I’ll be ready to compete. Probably three times as much as I have right now would be the right measurement for me to compete,” Djokovic told the ATP website.
“It’s quite impressive to see also how flexible they are … I didn’t think that they were that flexible considering it’s a heavyweight sport.
“But I see that they are paying a lot of attention to the mobility of their joints … which is of course what allows them to move around as agile as possible at their weight.”
Ready? Play. 😂 @DjokerNole | @rakutenopen pic.twitter.com/Rxe0daarnA
— ATP Tour (@ATP_Tour) September 30, 2019
Djokovic, who plays Australian Alexei Popyrin in the first round on Tuesday, recalled watching yokozuna Akebono who became sumo’s first foreign-born grand champion in 1993.
“It’s a great experience … one of the most popular sports in Japan. Speaking with my father yesterday on the phone I was telling him that I’m going to have an opportunity to meet sumo wrestlers,” 16-time Grand Slam singles champion Djokovic added.
“He and I were remembering many years ago when we used to watch Akebono … someone we supported a lot.”
First Published:
Sep 30, 2019 13:01 IST
Source: HindustanTimes