Skip to content


Daily Dispatch: Djokovic Denies Saw Story

29 August, 2012

Day Two of the US Open is in the books. A few minor upsets occurred; Francesca Schiavone bowed out to American Sloane Stephens, eighth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki lost in straight sets to Irina-Camelia Begu, and 10th-seeded Juan Monaco lost in five sets to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Still, the marquee players did well. Agnieszka Radwanska won 6-1, 6-1 over Nina Bratchikova, Novak Djokovic prevailed 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 over Paolo Lorenzi, and Serena Williams beat Coco Vandeweghe, 6-1, 6-1. Those who had tickets to sessions at Arthur Ashe were treated to incredibly one-sided tennis, but such is usually the case in the opening rounds of a Slam.

A surreal moment occurred as Williams was wrapping things up on Arthur Ashe:

“Good news, we’re going to be putting competitive tennis on your TV soon,” one of the ESPN commentators said. Maybe they should have done that in the first place? While Djokovic brutalized Lorenzi, there were several matches going the distance on the outer courts. It would’ve been nice to see one of those.

A few of today’s best quotes:

Andy Roddick on Roger Federer’s return to World No. 1: “I was never off the Roger bandwagon. I’m not surprised to see him back there. It’s not a story for me, because he never stopped being the greatest.  … The fact that we can talk about his matches, kind of the negative ones on ‑‑ that we can all remember every one of them is a good thing. I mean, that’s gotta tell you something about him.”

Roddick on his second round opponent, Bernard Tomic: “Playing well on a consistent basis … I think that’s the next step for him. Hopefully we can delay the process a week.”

Tomas Berdych on whether he thinks he can compete with the Big Three: “On one hand it’s very far; on the other one it’s quite close.  It’s really tough to say. I’m doing what I think is the best.  I’m trying to do it every day, work hard and hopefully one day I can say that, yeah, actually that was the best thing what I could make and maybe it happens; maybe not. I mean, the majors are not for everyone. This time it’s just probably for three guys. Yeah, it’s how it is. We are probably in the best era of our sport.”

Berdych’s comments reminded me of what he said in 2010 during the World Tour Finals as he struggled with a prolonged slump, after upsetting Federer and Djokovic to reach the Wimbledon final.

“In the past, I entered many matches in the position of a mere challenger, but after Wimbledon, everything changed. My opponents became the challengers and were keen on taking the scalp of a Top 10 player. Every game was much more difficult for me…[in London] I’ll try to pick up my game and to prove that I did not qualify by accident.”

Maybe Berdych can’t hang with Federer, Djokovic, and Nadal at every tournament. But wouldn’t it be nice if he at least had a little self-belief?

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic denied the story Vlade Divac, head of the Serbian Olympic Committee, told Serbian press about Djokovic sawing his racquets in half after his loss to Juan Martin del Potro at the Olympic Games.

“I have no reason to be wild or saw the racquets. I never would do anything like it,” Djokovic said.

Tweet of the day:

 

No comments yet

Comments are closed.