Daily Mail

Novak gives it the full Basil Fawlty

Tantrum does trick on day of fire and fury

- MIKE DICKSON Tennis Correspond­ent reports from Paris

Rackets, ballboys and seeds were all in danger at the French Open yesterday, but ultimately most of the big names survived intact.

Novak Djokovic demolished his racket before eking out a third-round victory, and a ball- boy was accidental­ly flattened during world No 2 alex Zverev’s latest flirtation with yet another early Grand slam exit.

Both players were to recover, and in the case of Djokovic there appeared to be a cathartic element to the destructio­n of his implement, for which he was given an official warning.

His full Basil Fawlty eruption came at 6-6 in the opening tiebreak, which he was to lose, but thereafter he carved out a 6-4, 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 victory over spain’s Roberto Bautistaag­ut to make the last 16.

Djokovic lost his temper after missing a simple forehand that would have given him set point, and he came close to losing the third set when 5-3 down. He lives to fight on in his pursuit of the form that once put him out of sight of his rivals.

‘trust me, in that moment when I do it, I don’t think how it can help me,’ he said of his tantrum. ‘It was a big point. In these kind of circumstan­ces, sometimes emotions get the worst out of you, or the best out of you.

‘at times in my career when I would scream or throw a racket, it would kind of wake me up and help me to just kind of free myself from that pressure, but there are times when it doesn’t help. I’m not proud of that, to be honest.’

the most alarming sight in Zverev’s 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6, 7-5 victory over Damir Dzumhur was the incident when the Bosnian collided with the child as they both looked skywards to retrieve a ball that had ballooned in the air.

It looked nasty, but after the initial shock the stricken ballboy was helped up by the player and umpire and able to continue his duties. at the time Zverevere was beginning a comeback to prevent the extension of his ignominiou­s streak at Grand slams, which has yet to see him advance beyond the last 16. this despite his impressive record at Masters level, where he has won three titles aged 21. Incredibly, he had never beaten a top 50 player at a major before yesterday, so the expectatio­n is that this could prove a significan­t victory.

Dzumhur forced a match point at 5-4 in the decider, and had he taken it there would have been another scar for the brilliant young German to deal with.

Zverev, whose fascinatio­n with the accent of Yorkshire radio reporter stephen tinfield has proved a hit on the internet, insisted that he just about managed to keep his demons at bay during the crisis moments of the three hour, 54 minute match.

‘Mainly I was thinking what I was going to have for lunch,’ he said. ‘You try to win each point, each game. When you’re down a match point, you’re not thinking, “Oh, how am I going to turn this match around?” You’re trying to win that exact point to be able to continue the match.’

a big casualty was last week’s winner of the Italian Open, world No 4 elina svitolina. the favourite for the women’s event was beaten 6-3, 7-5 by Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu.

 ?? AP GETTY IMAGES ?? Down and out in Paris: Dzumhur checks on the ball-boy he ran into Take that: Djokovic smashes his racket
AP GETTY IMAGES Down and out in Paris: Dzumhur checks on the ball-boy he ran into Take that: Djokovic smashes his racket
 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom