If you had doubts about Djokovic’s choices about his coaching team, now you have a certainty: he got it all wrong!
The world no.2 and sixth time Australian Open champion suffers from his worst defeat ever in a slam to world no.117 Dennis Istomin in the Melbourne second round.
To be fair, Istomin played a fantastic match, and he was even able to cope with the nerves after he squandered two consecutive set points in the second set that prevented him from leading the Serbian two sets to love. At that point, Dennis crumbled to lose the second and third set, but he was able to fight back in the fourth, and bring the encounter to a dog fight in the fifth set. This was Nole’s familiar terrain, and he was expected to find a solution anytime, even when he was 3-5 down, but it was Istomin to be the one to keep his focus and win what is probably the most important match of his career.
With this abrupt exit of the world no.2, a huge gap opened and we will have a first timer in the Melbourne finals. In fact, the players still “alive” in the lowest quarter of the draw are Thiem, Thompson, Paire, Fognini, Karlovic, Goffin, Dimitrov, Gasquet, Carmelo Busta, and Istomin. Thiem, Dimitrov, and Goffin are probably in pole position.
Credit to him. DJOKOVIC
Nole went straight to the press conference, probably to put all this experience behind him as soon as possible. The world no.2 was extremely gracious in defeat (as usual) to say
“He was the better player in the clutch moment, not happy with my performance, but not much more I could do. It’s a tennis match. On a given day you can lose. Nothing is impossible.”
I do not know my schedules
In theory, Nole will not play till Indian Wells, but at this point, after this terrible result, he might change his schedules. According to the Serb, it’s not time for him to think about that to say
“I don’t know what my schedule is right now. I just want to go home to my family.”
