No Djoking, he’s out

AAP Tuesday 6 January 2009 62 Comments »

An out-of-sorts Novak Djokovic insisted he was not panicking ahead of his looming Australian Open title defence despite being sensationally upset in the Brisbane International first round on Tuesday.

A change of racquet began disastrously for the world No.3 as little-known Latvian Ernests Gulbis made a racket of his own by claiming a 6-4 6-4 boilover over the top seed in 88 minutes at Pat Rafter Arena.

The Serbian has been forced to hastily change his preparation barely two weeks ahead of the opening grand slam, but looks set to snap up a wildcard at the Sydney International starting on Sunday.

“I am not panicking. I am not seriously in big doubt. The Australian Open is my highest goal for this part of the year and I really want to play well there,” he said.

“It’s not the end of the world. It’s the first match, so I’m not going to be pessimistic.

“I have a lot of time now to prepare for the Aussie Open.”

The 20-year-old Gulbis’ first win in three attempts over Djokovic was a promoter’s nightmare at the inaugural event.

But an oddly calm Djokovic looked hardly surprised by the result after detailing his disrupted preparation, which included switching racquet brands.

“The racquet is a pretty big change. I like everything (in my preparation) to be 100 per cent perfect, sometimes it is not possible,” he said.

“There are still some things (with the racquet) I am not used to and unfortunately I get this result.”

Formerly aligned with Wilson, Djokovic used his new Head racquet for the first time in competition at Brisbane.

Asked if he would stick with the new brand following the teething problems, Djokovic said: “I am under contract so I have to play with the racquet.”

Djokovic began the week with a chance of overtaking Roger Federer at No.2 in the world rankings but now is sweating simply on securing his next hit-out before his Australian Open defence.

Djokovic’s two previous wins over Gulbis were in the quarterfinals at last year’s French Open and the ATP event at Cincinnati.

But the Latvian turned the tables remarkably at Brisbane on Tuesday.

“It is probably one of my best wins but best games I don’t think so, I have had some beautiful losses,” Gulbis said.

The error-riddled Serb’s first serve percentage was a woeful 48 per cent and he was broken in the fifth game of the match, losing the first set in 45 minutes.

The second set started bizarrely with four straight breaks.

Djokovic finally looked on track when he brought an abrupt halt to the spate of breaks to hold his serve to lead 3-2 in the second.

However, Gulbis showed poise beyond his years to break again in the ninth game.

Djokovic handed Gulbis three match points when he netted a forehand and the Latvian then sealed the boilover with his fourth ace of the match.

In other men’s results, fifth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych brushed aside Australian wildcard Brydan Klein 6-0 6-4 and France’s Florent Serra downed former No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 6-3 7-6.

Have you picked your team of tennis aces?
You have until the start of play at the Australian Open to select a team of 16 men and 16 women in our online fantasy game SuperTennis.
Points will be awarded for the performance of your team members and you can switch the mix around right up until 19 January.
The SuperTennis selector with the most points wins a cash prize of AUD$5000.
Go to www.supertennis.com.au to register your team today.

Tags: Ernests Gulbis, Novak Djokovic

You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Nole

Novak, I hope you find yourself soon, because you looked like a lost child out there.
Novak is a slow starter and Gulbis is a very tough opponent. It looks that he was struggling with confidence. He obviously needs more preparations in order to start the new season properly. He made a mistake coming to Australia as late as Saturday. And it doesn’t seem that he is very confident with his new racket and needs some more time to get used to it.
Congrats to Gulbis and his fans. I hope this win over Nole gives him some confidence.
Albert

I agree with Stuart (1st comment)

it was in the climax of the match and channel 7 killed it just for deal or no deal…
so much for serious sports coverage
antisanitary

Sorry, Matt, but you’re just plain ridiculous. Djoko is not obliged to you just because you bought an expensive ticket, lol. Even if the match didn’t mean much to him, that doesn’t mean he should be worried about all the people who bought tickets just to see him playing in the secound round – it’s your problem, not his.

Anyway, no one who expected to see Djoko in upcoming rounds shouldn’t be too worried (except for Serbs maybe), ’cause Gulbis is pretty entertaining too and if he beats Mathieu (tough opponent though), he goes through to the 1/4 final. It’s 2:35 AM here in Latvia and a lot of people are still awake as it starts in less than two hours. Sarauj, Ernest!
http://none lietuva, latvija, estija….

Not just Latvia, all of the region is proud of you and been following your carrier for a while. Keep on going! Latviesu laba liaudis!
Tony

Upsets like this do happen especially early in the season, this result did not surprise me at all. Gulbis is an impressive player and will continue his rise up the rankings. To all the Djokovic fans don’t despair he will come back stronger and will challenge for the No 1 spot.
Matt

I’m not saying he’s obliged to me. He’s obliged to his fans, and he’s let them down.

You don’t seem to understand… Keep enjoying yourself in Latvia lolol!
antisanitary

Sorry, but it’s you who don’t seem to understand. No player can be blamed for losing a match, it’s not like he did it on purpose. And even if it didn’t mean so much to him, he shouldn’t be criticised just because someone bought a ticket expecting to see him in next round, it’s not his _responsibility_ to go through to 2nd, 3rd., etc. rounds.

Anyway, silly discussion. Keep grieving in Australia, lol. The big match is coming up!
Sandy

Am happy for Gulbis to win – he played well and deserved it! On the other side of the coin, one would expect the world number 3 to have a better approach to a tournament, particularly one where he was paid appearance money to attend. One word, integrity. Give me the women’s tour any day.
The Doctor

I strongly disagree with Sandy’s commnets.

Novak was coming off a short preparation and had his mind on other things , like figuring out the greens at Victoria Park. He will peak come Aus open time. As for the integrity word well the organizers of the BI simply made a commercial business decision , appearance moneys are paid all over the world in various sporting events. Are you suggesting that there is more integrity in the womans tour? – im not so sure…..

RAOFLMAO

THE DOC
mindy

No one can win all matches. The organizers just need to make sure they have plan Bs for these situations. The worst hit is Djoko himself. He lost the chance to get to No 2, just being 20 points behind Federer. Although I didn’t like his excuse “It was my racquet!”. Who put a gun to his head to change brands? You did it for the money boy!

I think he will be allright for AO. A loss in a 250 tournament is not the end of the world.

Well done Gulbis!
mindy

I also recommend a haircut!
li

I LOVE Nole

Brisbane International Tennis - Australian Open Series

No Djoking, he’s out

Ballkid Volunteers 2013

Newsletter

Site Information