Djokovic channels anger to overcome ‘demons’ and Zverev
Champion fights back after smashing racket says players will not put up with more quarantine
How broken racket helped Serb get a grip
height-times hserb
On another day of drama for Novak Djokovic, he fought back to win his Australian Open quarter-final against Alexander Zverev – with the help of a cathartic racket smash – before calling into question the future of the 2021 season.
Let us deal with the match first.
Djokovic was erratic and antsy in the early stages, falling a set behind as he struggled to loosen the damaged muscle on the right side of his stomach. And although his movement improved, the stress of the situation became too much for him as he lost his temper in the middle of the third set.
Djokovic had already sat down at the back of the court a few minutes earlier. Then, when he missed a service return, he let fly, spanking his racket down into the court surface so hard that it left three lightcoloured stripes.
After the change of ends, a ball girl came out with a dustpan and brush to clear up the debris, which was extensive. The process took around a minute, but once it was done, Djokovic reeled off five straight games – transforming a 4-1 deficit into a 6-4 advantage – to turn the match on its head.
“When I broke that racket, things started to shift for me in a positive direction,” said Djokovic in his oncourt interview. Later, in the interview room, he added: “Of course I’m not proud of that. I have my own demons to fight with, and I’m sure everybody else has them, too. Today it actually helped, even though I don’t intentionally do it in order for it to help me. I just kind of let it go. Poor racket.”
Despite his fitness issues, Djokovic has two good reasons to fancy his chances for a ninth Australian Open title. First, he has never lost in the semi-finals or final of this tournament. Second, his next opponent will be a wide-eyed ingenu: Aslan Karatsev, the Russian qualifier and world No114 who is playing in his first grand slam.
“I haven’t seen him play before the Australian Open,” Djokovic said. “Very strong guy physically, moves well, has a lot of firepower from the back of the court.”
Karatsev’s progress has been astonishing, although his quarterfinal win over Grigor Dimitrov was assisted by the back spasms that reduced the Bulgarian to serving like a club player.
Speaking to Jim Courier on the court, Djokovic said: “Tough luck for Grigor. There’s too many injuries. I am hoping this is temporary and we can go back to what we’re used to, without interruptions in practice. The 14-day quarantine, the amount of injuries shows how much impact it has on the players’ bodies.”
Later, Djokovic suggested his colleagues would not take any more. “Talking to a lot of players, a majority just don’t want to go ahead with the season if we are going to have to quarantine most of the tournaments. I want to understand how our continuation of the season postaustralia is going to look, because this is not good for players in terms of their well-being.”
Djokovic is right to say that the Australian arrangement is unsustainable, but then it is a special case. Many European countries are prepared to offer quarantine waivers for athletes. Andy Murray, for instance, was allowed to go from the UK to northern Italy to play last week’s Challenger event in Biella. He is back in action this morning, in a second Challenger, this time against world No 140 Federico Gaio.
Andrea Gaudenzi, the Association of Tennis Professionals chairman, made this point in a carefully worded reply to Djokovic’s challenge. “We are working in close collaboration with tournament organisers and local governments to secure travel exemptions for our athletes so they can continue to compete, as we have done successfully since August 2020.”
Is there a solution? Djokovic recommended “something like an NBA bubble [in reference to the American basketball league]: select one place and we play all the tournaments on that surface and that place. You know, three, four weeks in, two, three weeks’ rest, then back again”.
But this cut little ice with Gaudenzi, who replied, “The nature of our tour is truly global – a move away from that structure would present significant challenges compared to many other sports or leagues.”
‘I want to see what the season post-australia is going to look like as this is not good for players’
Eddie Jones says the absence of head coach Fabien Galthie may have a “negative effect” on France’s Six Nations hopes after his positive test result for Covid-19 put their Grand Slam hopes in jeopardy yesterday.
“Certainly him not being with the team may have a negative effect. I don’t know what his support staff is like, how they could step in,” the England head coach said.
He stressed that France were in a different position from England when Jones and his coaching staff were forced to self-isolate before the squad convened at their London training base in the build-up to the Six Nations, following forwards coach Matt Proudfoot’s positive Covid-19 test.
“There’s two different situations there. One, Fabien has been with the team for at least three weeks. So he’s been able to get his plans in place, the direction they’re going,” Jones said. “For us, it was a bit different because we hadn’t come together. I always felt like I was catching up, I came into camp late. We and I probably didn’t handle it well. Yeah, they might handle it better than us.”
Galthie has tested positive along with another member of the national side’s coaching staff, with both having begun a seven-day selfisolation on Monday evening ahead of coaching the side remotely. Neither Galthie nor the other member of the coaching staff has shown any Covid symptoms.
Galthie could be out of isolation by next Tuesday, giving him four days with the side before they face Scotland in Paris looking to continue their unbeaten start to the Six Nations.
Footage of France celebrating in the changing room after their win over Ireland on Sunday was highlighted by some on social media as a possible source for the two positive tests, although the rest of the coaching staff and squad have tested negative. Everyone will undergo additional testing today and on Friday and Sunday.