Djokovic searching for answers as slide continues
PARIS (Reuters) – Novak Djokovic’s season reached a new low with a crushing defeat by Dominic Thiem in the French Open quarterfinals on Wednesday and afterwards the Serb admitted he was struggling to find the solution to stop the slide.
The Serb, who turned 30 last month, will drop outside the top two for the first time since March 2011 on Monday - quite a contrast to a year ago when his domination of men’s tennis was complete after winning the French Open for the first time.
Since then he has bagged only two titles and in grand slam action there has been a worrying decline.
After losing to Stan Wawrinka in the US Open final he suffered a second-round defeat at the Australian Open to 117th-ranked Denis Istomin. On Wednesday, with a 32nd grand slam semifinal looming, he fell apart against Thiem, losing 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-0.
“You know, it’s obviously tough to get out of it and figure out the way how to move ahead,” Djokovic, who appeared to give up against Thiem in a 20-minute third set, told reporters.
“At least I’m trying. You know, I’m trying to get better, trying to be on a high level again. For me, it’s a whole new situation that I’m facing, especially in the last seven, eight months, not winning any tournament, which hasn’t happened in many years. All the top players have been through it. So I guess you’ve got to go through it, learn your lessons and figure out the way. It’s a big challenge, but I’m up for it.”
Djokovic split with Boris Becker towards the end of last year as his number one ranking was about to disappear.
Last month he then parted company with his long-term coaching team of Marian Vajda, fitness coach Gebhard Phil Gritsch and physio Miljan Amanovic, saying he needed to try and rediscover his spark.
Shortly before setting out to try and defend the French Open he announced that he had got together with eighttime major champion Andre Agassi, although the American was only in Paris for a week and missed Djokovic’s defeat by Thiem.
Djokovic said he hoped his relationship with Agassi, who famously recovered from a slump to win several majors after his 30th birthday, would help him return to form.
“Don’t put Andre in the midst of this. This final set, of course, that’s all me,” Djokovic said.
“As I have mentioned before several times when you guys ask me about his influence and impact on my game, it’s gonna take time.”
Djokovic’s defeat, his first before the semis in Paris since 2010, was all the more shocking as he beat Austrian sixth seed Thiem 6-1, 6-0 in Rome a few weeks ago.
On a windy Court Suzanne Lenglen after Thiem saved two set points in the opener, Djokovic’s game became littered with errors.
“I’m feeling like I’m missing consistency. I play a great match or two in a row, and then I play a completely opposite match. That’s what happened today,” said Djokovic.
Sixth-seed Thiem faces fourth seed Rafa Nadal next with the Spaniard in ominous form, having dropped just 22 games during his charge into the last four.
Thiem is the only player to have beaten Nadal on clay this season, but the 23-year-old is under no illusion about the size of the task that awaits him in Friday’s semi.
“I mean, it’s a joke how tough it is to win a slam,” Thiem told reporters. “Because obviously now I beat Novak. On Friday is Nadal. In the finals there is another top star. That’s why it’s a slam because it’s such a tough achievement.”
Nadal reached the semifinals after compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta retired due to injury. Nadal, bidding for a record-extending 10th title at Roland Garros, was leading 6-2, 2-0 when Carreno Busta decided he could not continue after receiving lengthy treatment for an abdominal muscle injury at the end of the first set.
Nadal has spent only about eight hours on court, dropping 22 games, to reach his 10th French Open semi with his 100th win in a best-of-five sets match on clay.
It is the fewest games the 31-yearold Nadal has lost on his way to the last four on the Paris clay. In 2008, he dropped 25.
Swede Bjorn Borg holds the record for the fewest games lost in a winning a French Open campaign, having conceded 32 in 1978, but Nadal’s focus is elsewhere.
“I don’t know how many games I lost this year, but I really don’t care about this... I only care that I’m in the semifinals. That’s a positive event for me already,” he told a news conference.
World number one Andy Murray shrugged off a sluggish start to reach his fifth French Open semifinal with a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (0), 6-1 defeat of Japan’s Kei Nishikori.
Murray, runner-up last year to Djokovic, set up a repeat of last year’s semifinal when he produced a dazzling display to beat Stan Wawrinka.
Former champion Wawrinka demolished Croatian Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the semis in awe-inspiring fashion.
The Swiss third seed broke the big-serving Cilic six times, spraying the court with winners throughout the match to ruthlessly sweep the seventh seed aside.
Wawrinka, who lifted the Musketeers Cup in 2015, ended Cilic’s ordeal on his first match point with a second-serve ace.
In the women’s semis on Thursday, favorite Simone Halep faces Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova, after Timea Bacsinszky and Jelena Ostapenko face off in the first match of the day.
Former French Open runner-up Halep staged a remarkable fightback and saved a match point to reach the semifinals with a 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-0 win over Elina Svitolina on Wednesday.
Romanian third seed Halep trailed by a set and 5-1 against the hard-hitting fifth seed but somehow dug herself out of a hole.
Pliskova played safely throughout the match in windy conditions to beat Caroline Garcia 7-6 (3), 6-4 and end the French presence in the main draw.