Turn up heat
Former World No 1 faces monumental task as he has Federer and Nadal in his quarter
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic will be out to reassert his dominance on the hard courts of Indian Wells this week, seeking to shake off the slump that has dogged him into 2017.
Djokovic’s five titles in the California desert include the last three. But the Serbian star arrives at a tournament he has owned, shaken by a secondround exit at the Australian Open, which was followed by a shocking quarterfinal loss to young Australian Nick Kyrgios in Acapulco.
The setbacks come on the back of a troublesome second half of 2016, when he lost his world number one ranking to Britain’s Andy Murray and relinquished his Wimbledon and US Open titles.
Acknowledging that his longed-for first French Open crown last year left him emotionally depleted, Djokovic nonetheless says his game remains good enough to get him back to the summit.
“Right now I feel like it was better than it was, especially in the second part of last season,” Djokovic said Thursday as unseeded men swung into action in the first ATP Masters tournament of the year.
Djokovic, who lifted the trophy in Doha this year before his Australian Open defeat, insisted the latest setbacks haven’t discouraged him. But he’s got a monumental task in Indian Wells, where he anchors a bottom quarter that also includes four-time champion Roger Federer, and three-time winner Rafael Nadal.
The talent-laden section also includes former US Open winner Juan Martin del Potro, Kyrgios and young German Alexander Zverev. “I haven’t had too many draws like that,” Djokovic said. “It’s quite amazing to see that many quality players are in one quarter.
SANIA-STRYCOVA EASE INTO SECOND ROUND
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic eased into the second round of the BNP Paribas Open after defeating German-latvian duo of Julia Goerges and Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-4.
The fourth seeded Indo-czech pair consumed just over an hour and 15 minutes after staving off four of eight possible break points from their opponents on Thursday night. Goerges and Ostapenko were broken six times during the tie.
BOUCHARD BUNDLED OUT OF INDIAN WELLS
Former world number five Eugenie Bouchard’s 2017 struggles continued Thursday at Indian Wells, where she fell in the first round to Germany’s Annika Beck.
Beck made the most of Bouchard’s errors to dispatch the Canadian 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Although it was her second first-round exit in as many events since her third-round loss at the Australian Open, Bouchard said she was encouraged to be playing pain free after battling an abdominal injury after Melbourne.
Andrea Petkovic booked an all-german clash with secondseeded Angelique Kerber, and she’s hoping some inside knowledge will help her get past her Olympic teammate and friend.