Djokovic sits out against Eagles
Falcons star says he is not 100% fit to take to the court
Earlier on Tuesday, The Hawks staged a stunning fightback to defeat The Falcons on a thrilling second evening in Dubai.
Novak Djokovic sat out the World Tennis League tie yesterday night due to not feeling 100 per cent well enough to play. Team Falcons though continued to play against Team Eagles.
Earlier on Tuesday, The Hawks staged a stunning fightback to defeat The Falcons on a thrilling second evening in Dubai.
First, Grigor Dimitrov and Paula Badosa (Falcons) defeated Dominic Thiem and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Hawks) 5-7 6-3 10-4, Elena Rybakina (Hawks) then recovered from a frustrating opening set to defeat Aryna Sabalenka (Falcons) 0-6 6-1 10-6 and level the tie, before Alexander Zverev (Hawks) stunned Novak Djokovic (Falcons) 6-3 6-4 to claim what at times had appeared to be an unlikely victory.
Needing two chances
The Hawks needed two chances to take the opening set of the mixed doubles, with Dominic Thiem failing to serve it out at 5-4 before Paula Badosa dropped her serve at 5-5 to leave Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to close out the set instead. Just one break of Thiem’s serve at 1-0 in the second set was enough to give The Falcons the set, and they then swept to a commanding 5-0 lead in the super tiebreak to lead the tie 1-0. Aryna Sabalenka then cruised to a 6-0 opening set lead over Elena Rybakina. But in a sensational turnaround, the 2022 Wimbledon champion claimed the second set 6-1 and then edged the super tiebreak 10-6 to level the tie.
Zverev faced a formidable challenge against Djokovic and began in the worst possible way by double-faulting three times as he was broken in the very first game. But he levelled at 2-2 and then earned a second crucial break to lead 5-3 and serve out the set. After an early exchange of breaks in the second set, Zverev broke again to lead 3-2 and that proved to be decisive.