Djokovic ‘not proud’ after frustration boils over
ANOTHER eventful day at Roland Garros found the 2016 champion Novak Djokovic mangling his racket while bookies’ favourite Elina Svitolina made a surprise exit in straight sets.
Facing 13th seed Roberto Bautista Agut, Djokovic’s emotions boiled over during the second-set tie-break, when he failed to put away a routine forehand winner and then thrashed his racket three times into the court with all the power he could muster.
“I’m not proud of doing that,” said Djokovic, who needed three hours 48 minutes to close out a 6-4 6-7 7-6 6-2 victory. “But it happens. At times in my career, when I would scream or throw a racket, it would wake me up and help to free myself from that pressure that is just building throughout the match.
“But there are times when it doesn’t help.”
Svitolina – who is from Ukraine but lives in London – suffered a 6-3, 7-5 defeat at the hands of Mihaela Buzarnescu, the 31st seed from Romania.
Despite Svitolina’s high ranking of No 4, and 12 titles on the Women’s Tennis Association tour, she has yet to go beyond the quarter-finals of a Major.
“I have to really deal with it,” said Svitolina, when asked about the high expectations surrounding her. “It’s tough.”
Her equivalent on the men’s tour is Alexander Zverev, the world No 3 who overpowers opponents for fun in bestof-three-set tennis but has a terrible grand slam record. Zverev finally overcame a top-50 opponent at a Major yesterday, an achievement he had never notched before, when he saved a match point to sneak past 26th seed Damir Dzumhur 6-23-64-67-67-5.
“It was important to see for myself that I can win back-toback five-set matches,” said Zverev, who was also forced to go the distance against Dusan Lajovic in the previous round.
“This gives me a lot of confidence, and I think it was an important point to prove to myself, as well.”
Caroline Wozniacki raced into the fourth round with a crushing victory over home hope Pauline Parmentier.
The feeling among the locals was that Parmentier, the world No 75, had the tools to trouble the second seed and maybe even send her packing.
Instead the 32-year-old was thrashed 6-0 6-3. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
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