Novak Djokovic can’t find his way to greatness anymore.
The world no.2 suffered another early loss in the Monte Carlo quarters at the hands of David Goffin. Before this match, Nole was enjoying a 5-0 win-loss record against the Belgian (11-1 in terms of sets), but yesterday everything was different. Nole was demolished in the first set (6-2) before winning the second 6-3. The world no.2 conquered an early break in the decider that allowed him to build up a strong 4-2 lead. At that point, Goffin found the energy to hold his serve (3-4), break Djokovic soon after at 15 (4-4) and hold his serve again (5-4). The best moment of the match was the last game when Djokovic saved two consecutive match points when he was 15-40 down; then he saved two more match points soon after before falling. Goffin won this match 6-2 3-6 7-5.
The moment of victory for @David__Goffin 🔥💪 #MCROLEXMASTERS pic.twitter.com/J9XEjttAl1
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 21, 2017
The elbow is fine. DJOKOVIC
Fortunately, Djokovic acknowledged that he was fine with his elbow, but he (and David) were struggling a lot on a diagonal (backhand to backhand) because of an extremely strong sunlight.
In the press conference after the match, Nole commented
“Elbow is fine. It’s just unfortunate I missed my chances in the beginning of the third set to go a double break up. It was almost unplayable. I just got disturbed by that light. On 4-3 I lost that serve. On that side, it’s kind of hard to find timing when somebody’s kind of putting a flashlight directly in your eyes. Both of us struggled on that side. He managed to hold serve on 5-all from that side, which was a great effort from him. But I couldn’t.”
Goffin vs. Nadal
David will face Rafael Nadal in the semi-final. Interesting enough, they have never played each other so far.
