Underdog Bulgarian stuns top-ranked Djokovic
MADRID, SPAIN — Grigor Dimitrov stunned Novak Djokovic in the second round of the Madrid Open on Tuesday, beating the top-ranked Serb 7-6 (6), 6-7 (8), 6-3 for the biggest win of his career.
The 28th-ranked Bulgarian saved three set points in the first before taking the lead, and Djokovic then appeared to hurt his right ankle when trailing 4-2 in the second. The Serbian player slipped on the baseline and winced in pain, then immediately called for a trainer and took a lengthy break to get treatment.
The wait for the game to resume annoyed the crowd, who turned against Djokovic and began chanting Dimitrov’s name.
“I seriously didn’t expect that,” said the 21-year-old Bulgarian. “That was the one thing that, of course, cheered me up a lot.”
Djokovic — who ended Rafael Nadal’s eight-year winning streak at the Monte Carlo Masters last month — said the loss had more to do with poor preparations than an injury.
“I didn’t prepare myself so good,” Djokovic said. “For 12 days after Monte Carlo I haven’t touched the racket.”
Djokovic said he didn’t understand why the crowd turned against him during the injury break.
“I don’t see any reason for that. I didn’t do anything bad,” he said.
The crowd then displayed sympathy for Dimitrov when he appeared to suffer from cramps at 5-5 with the game at deuce, visibly upsetting the Serb.
Dimitrov, who suffered severe cramps last year at Roland Garros, said it didn’t affect him as badly this time.
“Today I was better, I was not crawling.”
Earlier, defending champion Roger Federer looked comfortable on clay in his first match in two months, easing past Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3 to reach the third round.
In the women’s event, defending champion Serena Williams moved her title defence into the third round after beating Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain 6-2, 7-5.
The second-ranked Federer took a break after losing in the Indian Wells quarter-finals on hard court to Nadal, but instantly took to the slower red surface and broke early to take control of the first set. He then broke Stepanek three times in the second, losing his own serve once, to finish the win in one hour and 21 minutes.
“I’m very happy, because he has caused me difficulties in the past,” Federer said about the 34-year-old Stepanek, who these days is one of the few players on tour older than the Swiss star.
“If I would be the only guy over 30, it would feel a bit awkward, to be honest,” Federer, 31, said.
Federer can equal John McEnroe’s career tally of 77 titles if he defends the Madrid trophy, having won last year on the heavily criticized blue clay that organizers decided to get rid of for this tournament.
Like many of his fellow players, Federer said the traditional red surface was better.
“They (organizers) spoke to more experts from the French Open and Monaco, and you can tell it’s a proper clay court now,” Federer said, adding that Madrid had issues with its courts even before switching to a blue surface. “I know that added to the whole controversy, the colour, because of tradition and so forth. It was extremely slippery and the court wasn’t taking the water well.”
Third-seeded Andy Murray had a tougher time against Florian Mayer before outlasting the German 7-6 (11), 7-6 (3).
Murray said he struggled with the altitude and found it hard to breathe at the end of the first set where “there were so many long points.”
Madrid is 660 metres (2,180 feet) above sea level.