Theim routs pensive Djokovic
PARIS — His French Open title defense nearing an end, Novak Djokovic stumbled and tumbled to his knees on the red clay, his racket flying from his right hand as his opponent’s backhand zipped past.
Even Djokovic found it hard to fathom how far he’s fallen, only a year removed from leaving Roland Garros as a player nonpareil, the first man in nearly a halfcentury to win four consecutive Grand Slam titles.
That he departed this time with a surprisingly lopsided 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-0 quarterfinal loss to sixthseeded Dominic Thiem yesterday left everyone, including Djokovic, pondering the answers to difficult questions.
Did he give up in the last set? What has happened to his once-impervious play? Can he summon that again? Does he need a break from the grind of the tour?
“It’s a fact that I’m not playing close to my best, and I know that,” Djokovic said after his first straightset loss at a major since the 2013 Wimbledon final. “For me, it’s a whole new situation that I’m facing.”
Since completing his career Grand Slam at the French Open 12 months ago, Djokovic has participated in four majors in a row without earning a trophy. He also lost his No. 1 ranking to Andy Murray.
Djokovic was runnerup at the U.S. Open but lost in the third round at Wimbledon, the first round at the Rio Olympics and the second round at the Australian Open.
“The win here last year has brought a lot of different emotions. Obviously, it was a thrill and complete fulfillment, I guess,” Djokovic said. “I have lived on that wave of excitement. . . . At the U.S. Open, I just was emotionally very flat and found myself in a situation that I hadn’t faced before.”
Thiem, a 23-year-old Austrian, next faces ninetime French Open champion Rafael Nadal, who advanced when No. 20 Pablo Carreno Busta stopped while trailing 6-2, 2-0 after injuring an abdominal muscle late in the first set.
“I mean, it’s a joke how tough it is to win a Slam,” said Thiem, the only player who beat Nadal in one of his 23 clay-court matches this season. “Now I beat Novak. On Friday, (it’s) Nadal. In the finals, there is another top star.”
In the other semifinal, 2016 runner-up Murray will face 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka in a matchup of three-time major title winners. Murray eliminated No. 8 Kei Nishikori 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (0), 6-1 yesterday, while No. 3 Wawrinka won 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 against No. 7 Marin Cilic.
Simona Halep and Karolina Pliskova reached the women’s semifinals. Halep came all the way back from a set and 5-1 down in the second to defeat Elina Svitolina 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-0. Pliskova beat Caroline Garcia 7-6 (3), 6-4.
With the wind whipping at more than 15 mph (25 kph), and the temperature in the low 50s (low teens Celsius), Djokovic was out of sorts in so many ways even before that 20-minute third set in which he won only 8 of 34 points.
“It’s hard to comment (on) the third set. Obviously, nothing was going my way and everything his way,” Djokovic said. “Just a pretty bad set.”