With more effort than he probably imagined, Novak Djokovic won a match again in Indian Wells four years later. He had not competed there since 2019, due to the coronavirus pandemic and his refusal to get vaccinated, and this Saturday he did it again. He beat a fantastic Aleksandar Vukic, who forced the third set before losing 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 in 2h10. The Serbian will face on Monday in the third round against the Italian Luca Nardi, executioner of the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang (6-3, 3-6 and 6-3).
Djokovic’s victory was his 400th in Masters 1,000. He is the second tennis player to reach this figure in the history of this category of tournaments, after Rafa Nadal, who is just six shy of the Spaniard’s mark, which he raised to 406 two years ago in Rome, when he won in the second round against American John Isner, before later falling against Canadian Denis Shapovalov.
Related news
Novak is on a streak of 11 Masters wins thanks to the titles he won consecutively in Cincinnati and Paris last year and the victory in the California desert against an opponent of Montenegrin origin and ties to Spain. Because he traveled there to train when he was 17 years old (he is 27 now and is 69th in the world) and because he is equipped by an increasingly prestigious Toledo firm, Joma. The number one had to concentrate a lot to overcome Vukic who put very good angles on him, played good inverted rights and won a few long exchanges. “It was difficult to beat him, he deserved the applause at the end for how he played, especially in the second set,” acknowledged the one from Belgrade, very happy to return to “tennis paradise.”
Movement and reading
However, Nole moved wonderfully to defend himself and read well what Aleksandar, who knows how to speak the same language (Serbo-Croatian), was proposing to him. It was a great merit that the Aussie won the second round with a direct return, and that he showed his face in the third. However, Djokovic won the match against his serve with a brilliant last point. His level is very high at the first change and he wants to be the first to win Indian Wells in three different decades. He was champion in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016. He is missing a trophy in 2020. And he is going for it. He would be 41st in a 1,000 (absolute record) and 99th among all categories. Tremendous.
2024-03-10 01:49:38
#Djokovic #stalks #Nadal #victories #Masters
