The first time he felt anything was three weeks ago, while training for Wimbledon.
"I took some medication and with the help of a sports massage therapist I played that one match in London. Afterwards I had four days to rest and felt the pain was almost completely gone. However, it came back last week and I couldn’t move my neck at all. Here in Umag, I trained on Monday but it still wasn’t good. Medicine is really not my field but from what I’ve heard from the doctors, it is a problem that 70-80 percent of tennis players have. It’s an inflammation that causes muscles to contract, and after two weeks of physical therapy everything should be OK."
Apart from withdrawing from the singles competition, Borna had to drop out of the doubles competition as well.
"I’ve put Nino Serdarušić on the spot with this. We got an invitation and I believe we could have done great, but it is what it is. I am confident I’ll make up for it next year", Ćorić concluded.
Apart from Umag, where his place in the main draw has been taken by his fellow Next Gen player Andrey Rublev from Russia, Borna will have to miss the tournament in Hamburg as well. He should, however, be ready for the series of hard court tournaments in the United States, which starts soon.
