Novak Djokovic breaks silence after vomiting and collapsing on court at Shanghai Masters | Tennis | Sport

It looked as though Djokovic would be forced to retire, but he quickly picked himself up and kept battling on. He found another gear in the decisive final set to book his place in the quarter-finals, where he will face Zizou Bergs.

After the match, Djokovic refused to conduct his regular media duties but took to Instagram with a brief message for his supporters.

He wrote: “Tough day at the office. Very challenging physically. Luckily, I have the greatest support in the world.”

Djokovic is not the only player to have expressed frustration with the conditions in Shanghai. Holger Rune recently urged ATP bosses to introduce a heat rule after seven players were forced to retire in the middle of their matches.

“I think it was like 31 degrees and very humid, but compared to the other days it was pretty brutal, so I think there should be some kind of rule,” said the Dane after beating Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard to reach the quarter-finals.

“We can handle a certain amount of heat because, you know, we are fit, we’re strong, we’re mentally strong as well, but there’s always a limit. I think it’s also important to take care of your health. We need to survive.”

Earlier this week, Djokovic admitted to struggling in the blistering heat with humidity creeping close to the 80 per cent mark at times.

Speaking after his previous victory over Yannick Hanfmann, he said: “It’s the same for every player out on the court, but it’s brutal.

“It’s brutal when you have over 80 per cent of humidity day after day, particularly for the guys when they’re playing during the day with heat, with sun, it’s even more brutal.

“For me, biologically it’s a bit more challenging to deal with it. But I had to really weather the storm today. Yannick played an incredible match from the beginning.”