Tough day for Novak Djokovic that had to fight a 4 hours and 32 minutes’ battle against a sticky Simon in the Australian Open 4th round.
Nole was definitely not as sharp as usual and he appeared without much energy since the beginning of the encounter. Eventually his incredible class and grit allowed the Serb to win 6-3 6-7 (1)6-4 4-6 6-3.
Djokovic. Too many unforced errors
By the end of the match Djokovic committed 100 unforced errors and the world no.1 wasn’t pleased with that to comment “Too many unforced errors today. I’m going to make sure that I decrease that number at least more than half and hope for the best.”
Do you remember any other match that you had 100 unforced errors? Djokovic: “Not even close”
— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) January 24, 2016
“It’s actually good to win when you play that bad”, Djokovic facepalming at himself
— Carole Bouchard (@carole_bouchard) January 24, 2016
Djokovic: “In terms of the level I’ve played it’s a match to forget for me”…..”Unfortunately you have days like this”
— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) January 24, 2016
Then talking about the immense number of drop shot he tried (and failed) he added “It would be interesting to see how many drop shot points I won. It’s probably one out of 40, very low percentage. The person who shouted was absolutely right, as I said on the court.
But sometimes it works. It’s my game. As I said, I don’t think it can get much worse than this. A hundred unforced errors for a match is really tremendous for me, my style of the game. I’m aggressive but still like to construct the point.”
Someone from the crowd Djokovic “no more drop shots”, Djokovic tells him, “I hate to say it but you’re absolutely right”.
— Reem Abulleil (@ReemAbulleil) January 24, 2016
The quarters vs. Nishikori
Nole will play an in-form Nishikori in the quarters. Head to head is 5-2 for the world no.1, but Djokovic needs much more if he wants to get to the semis.
DJOKOVIC’S HALF |
NOT GREAT, BUT GOOD ENOUGH |