Djokovic is confused and worried hours before the start of Roland Garros: “I don’t see myself as a favorite in Paris”
“I’m worried”. The Serbian Novak Djokovic He went to Geneva in search of certainty, but left Switzerland surrounded by doubts and confused after being eliminated in the semifinals of the ATP 250 on clay against the Czech Tomas Machac (No. 44) by 6-4, 0-6 and 6-1.
“Of course I’m worried. I haven’t played well at all this year”acknowledged the legend.
“This year I haven’t played well at all, except for a few games here and there. Things are what they are. I don’t see myself as a favorite in Paris,” he said about Roland Garros, which begins on Sunday. His debut is scheduled for Tuesday. It will be against the local Pierre-Hugues Herbertwhich is currently located in 143rd place in the ATP ranking:
This new setback for the world number 1, in a crisis of results since the beginning of the year, fuels doubts about his state of form in the hours before the second Grand Slam of the season, where the Serbian defends the title won in 2023.
“I will try to take the games one after the other. I didn’t have a great night and today was difficult. TI had horrible feelings during the first part of the game. I don’t want to take credit away from Tomas, who deserved his victory, but I don’t know what to think of this match. I prefer to forget it. I also don’t know how I could win the second set,” he lamented.
And he didn’t stop there with his self-criticism: “When I got here I expected to play more than one game and I played three. But I wish I could feel better. It’s not nice to suffer like this on the court. It’s hard to focus on tennis when you have other things on your mind. I just hope to be ready and in good health for Roland Garros.”
Nole has not yet reached a final in 2024, something that has not happened at this point in the season since 2018.
Against Machac, Djokovic suffered at the start of the match to maintain his serve, in a game that lasted 11 minutes. More successful in the rest than in the serve, the Serbian scored the first break for 3-1 and then stretched the advantage with his own serve and escaped 4-1.
And when it seemed that the best Nole was reappearing, the Serbian’s game suddenly collapsed. Up 4-2 on the scoreboard, Djokovic committed several direct faults, lost his serve and allowed Machac to tie 4-4. The Czech took advantage of the chaos to close the first set in 58 minutes.
At that moment, Djokovic asked for medical assistance and started the second set with a double break, playing with intermittent impulses, capable of scoring strokes of genius and making gross mistakes.
Even so, Djokovic closed the second set in half an hour (6-0), taking advantage of the Czech’s errors.
But again, the third set brought with it a change of script. Pushed into error on several occasions by a more explosive rival, number 1 disconnected againgave up his serve twice in a row and left the way clear to the final for the Czech after 2 hours and 6 minutes of play.
This will be the first final on the circuit for the 23-year-old, who will face the Norwegian Casper Ruud (N°7) or Italian Flavio Cobolli (No. 56).
Source: AFP
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