2023-11-02 21:28:21
After the elimination of Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday, it was Novak Djokovic who almost left the Paris Rolex Masters prematurely. Lacking liveliness, the Serbian narrowly escaped on Thursday evening once morest the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, 25th player in the world (4-6, 7-6 [2]6-4, en 2h38).
Everything had started as it should for the most successful man in history in this room (6 successes). An entry break, 3-0 in 12 minutes, then 4-2 and 40-15, once morest an opponent with extremely clean tennis but until then painless for the world No. 1.
At that moment, on a backhand cross from the Dutchman, Novak Djokovic stopped the ball following the rebound, and therefore the point, convinced that the shot had ended up in the lane. He was right, but only 98%. Good ball of 2 mm, lost point and bamboo shot.
5 winning shots for 12 unforced errors in the first set
Suddenly very imprecise while Griekspoor was getting bolder and the French referee, Aurélie Tourte, had to be more and more authoritarian with the crowd too dissipated between the two service balls, the Serb saw the display board. turn your back cracked. In a shutout, he lost the set following 46 minutes (6-4), with stats unworthy of his status (5 winning shots for 12 unforced errors, compared to 16 and 12 for Griekspoor).
Two dangerous break points
He then called the tournament doctor who gave him medicine. He saved a break point at the start of the second set then missed three for 2-0. The rest of this set was no longer affected by the slightest alert for the servers. Until 4-4, when, let down by his backhand, Djokovic found his back once morest the wall, at 15-40. He had the good idea to pass four first serves in a row to avoid this danger. But his overall production of the day did not lend itself to optimism. Except that Griekspoor, multiplying unforced errors, decided to completely miss the tie-break, losing 7-2.
Ditto at 2-2 in the last set, with a redacted service game which allowed Djokovic to give himself a little breathing room, before returning the favor to his opponent at 4-3, ending his game with a double fault which the audience greeted with too much enthusiasm, leading the Serb to applaud the crowd ironically. Touched, but not sunk, with a new station wagon, white, once more largely thanks to Griekspoor.
A few minutes later, on an excellent second ball, he won a victory whose merit goes more to his self-sacrifice than to his level of play. In the quarter-finals, Friday, Novak Djokovic will face the winner of the last match on the program on Thursday evening, between the defending champion Holger Rune and the German Daniel Altmaier.
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