“I ran out of the gas completely,” Novak Djokovic unveils that he ‘completely collapsed’ after his shocking defeat
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Novak Djokovic
After losing in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships against Jiri Vesely, the No. 1 ATP player was returning after a long absence. He couldn’t even defend his 21st Grand Slam, which Rafael Nadal won by overcoming Russia’s World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev. Following his disputed medical exemption and Visa revocation, Novak Djokovic was deported from Australia.
Novak Djokovic’s return to clay wasn’t as smooth as he had hoped. In the second round of the Monte-Carlo Masters, the Serb was eliminated by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The Spaniard with the biggest win of his career outlasted World No. 1 in a match that was majorly dominated by Davidovich as he beat Djokovic with the score of 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1 to advance to the third round.
“Of course I’m disappointed”- Novak Djokovic
The 20-time Major champion revealed to the media after his loss that losing was the last thing on his mind going into this encounter. “Well, of course I’m disappointed,” said the Serb. “No one likes to lose. We are professional athletes. This is what we do. We go out on the court to compete and try to win against each other.”
Djokovic was defeated 6-3 in the first set but won the second set in a tiebreaker. In the decider, though, he utterly disintegrated, winning only one game. In the third set, he admitted that he was a total shambles, which proved costly on such a physically demanding surface as clay. “Yeah, I didn’t like the way I felt physically in the third,” he added. “I just ran out of the gas completely. Just couldn’t really stay in the rally with him. I mean, if you can’t stay in the rally, not feeling your legs on the clay, it’s mission impossible.”
The World No. 1 promised, though, that he will look into the reasons for his physical collapse further. “So I don’t like that, that kind of feeling I experienced in the third, but, you know, I’m going to look with my team into reasons why that was the case and go back to the drawing board and hopefully next week will be better in Belgrade,” he added.
Novak Djokovic to sweat it out on the other clay-court tournaments
Monte Carlo might have been a fantastic tournament for Novak Djokovic, as it sets the tone for his hopes of winning the French Open. However, he will have to rely on other clay-court competitions after falling to Davidovich Fokina. His next competition, which will take place on April 18th in Serbia, is now in the works.
Because the Covid laws and regulations vary from country to country, it’s unknown where he’ll play next after the home event in Belgrade. However, it’s evident that he’s not getting enough match practise right now. His anti-vaccine position, meanwhile, may prevent him from competing in any more tournaments during the clay-court season.
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Pritha Ghosh
(414 Articles Published)