Novak Djokovic’s bad day gets worse, loses in the mixed doubles semifinal too at Tokyo Olympics
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Novak Djokovic mixed doubles
It was a day Novak Djokovic will want to forget as he was handed the second loss of the day in the semifinals of the mixed doubles event at Tokyo Olympics. The Serbian duo of Novak Djokovic and Nina Stojanovic lost to Russians Aslan Karatsev and Elena Vesnina in straight sets 7-6(4),7-5.
Earlier in the day, Djokovic lost his men’s singles semifinal against Alexander Zverev in three sets. He was hoping to win an Olympic gold in mixed doubles but that was not to happen as the Russians crushed his hope. Djokovic and Stojanovic were leading in the first set tie breaker 4-2 and were looking good to win the set but a shift in momentum saw the Russian duo win 5 points in a row to steal the first set.
The Serbs were once again up in the second set and even had opportunities to take a break but they failed. Karatsev’s lethal serve and huge forehands saw the Russians take a late break and win the set 6-5.
With this loss, Djokovic will now compete in two bronze medal matches on Saturday; men’s singles bronze medal match against Pablo Carreno Busta and mixed doubles bronze medal match against Australian duo of Ash Barty and John Peers. The Serbian world no.1 is the only member of the Big 3 who doesn’t have an Olympic gold. Federer has a men’s doubles gold while Nadal has golds in both men’s singles and doubles.
All Russian Mixed Doubles Final
The mixed doubles final will be an All-Russian affair between top stars- Andrey Rublev/Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Aslan Karatsev/ Elena Vesnina. The gold medal match will be played on Sunday with no pair going in as the clear favorite.
Amongst the four, Elena Vesnina is a former Olympic gold medalist. She won gold at Rio 2016 in women’s doubles event and will look to repeat the same on Sunday with Karatsev. Vesnina will also compete in the bronze medal match in women’s doubles.
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Lakshya Chopra
(2595 Articles Published)