You two should be careful. The over the top disrespect and vitriol Novak garners here is pretty astounding. I understand that there are reasons why many don't like him, which is fine, but it's still over the top imo. Just look at the covid jokes in this thread for evidence of that while the pandemic is still going on. Also, English isn't Novak's first language - perhaps a muscle pull and tear were synonymous in his mind at that moment. Or perhaps he truly did believe he had a tear at that time as a fearful reaction to a clear injury. He was just saying what he thought in the moment after a match at the time.
Anyone who thinks that he's faking an injury clearly didn't watch the 3rd/4th set with Fritz, or parts of the second and third set with a Raonic, where he often didn't even attempt to a put a racket on the out wide serves - that is very clearly out of character for his game. Clearly in the Fritz match, he recovered enough by the fifth set, and clearly in the Raonic match in the 3rd/4th set, he was able to return a lot better than other portions of the match.
