“He got everything he wanted” Andy Roddick believes the runner-up finish in Serbia Open is a step forward for Novak Djokovic
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Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic had to settle for the runners-up trophy at the 2022 Serbia Open this year as World No. 8 and the second seed Andrey Rublev got the better of him. Rublev won the match 6-2, 6-7(7), 6-0 to record his first win over Novak and also his first-ever win against a World No. 1 player.
It was Rublev’s third final appearance of the season and he took home his third title whereas Novak was playing in his third tournament of the season and his first final. It had been a tough week for Novak as all of his matches were decided in the third set and the player was visibly exhausted given his lack of playing time this year. Nevertheless, he survived the different challenges but the second set in the finals got everything out of him and he could not hold up for the third set as he had to eat a bagel for the 13th time in his career.
With a bagel being quite embarrassing for a player of Novak’s stature, former World No. 1 Andy Roddick believes otherwise. It is no secret that Novak is eyeing a successful title defence at the 2022 French Open and win his 21st major and 3rd French Open title, Roddick opined that it was indeed a good week for the Serbian in understanding his game going to Paris in a couple of weeks.
“Was just the kind of week Novak needed. Had some seriously physical matches and had the reps for the mental stress points. He has some time to recover/practice before Rome. Obviously, we all want to win all the time, but I think he got everything he wanted/needed out of the week,” replied Roddick to a user on Twitter who had questioned him why Novak’s level dropped.
Novak Djokovic extends his lead at the top of the ATP rankings
Djokovic who was dethroned from the top of the rankings for 2-weeks by Daniil Medvedev but now looks sure to hold it for at least a couple of weeks more. Novak currently leads the rankings with 8400 points with Medvedev having 8080 points while World No. 3 Alexander Zverev has 7420 points to his name. Novak is currently in his 367th week and given Medvedev unlikely to play in the Clay season, Novak can move further closer to Steffi Graf‘s all-time record of 377 weeks.
Also Read: Carlos Alcaraz creates a striking record with Rafael Nadal with the Barcelona Open title
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Sarthak Shitole
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