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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 https://www.atptour.com/en/news/djokovic-tokyo-2019-sumo-wrestling-feature
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."
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-times 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."
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; editing by
Sudipto Ganguly)
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