27. 03. 2010. ·
No. 2 seed at the Sony Ericsson Open Novak Djokovic lost his opening match to world no.59 Belgian Olivier Rochus 2-6, 7-6(7), 4-6 in 2 hours and 55 minutes at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Miami.
The best Serbian tennis player failed in attempt to defend his last year’s final.
Novak couldn’t find his rhythm from the beginning of the match, and his serve was making it even harder. Rochus made breaks in the first and third games and he soon had a 4-0 lead. The Belgian kept the advantage til the end of the set and took it 6-2.
Rochus broke Djokovic’s service in the fifth game of the second set, but the Serb fought back immediately to level the score. At 5-4 for Novak, match was suspended for the second time due to rain. World no.2 missed a set point in the tenth game and the Belgian equalised to 5-5. The set was decided in a tiebreaker, Nole won it 9-7.
There were more breaks in the decisive final set. Rochus was serving for the match at 5-3, but the 22-year-old Belgrade native broke back to come to 5-4. He was serving to stay in the match, but the Belgian made another break, sixth in the match, to clinch the victory that takes him into the third round.
Statistics: aces (6-1), double faults (11-4), breaks (3-6), total points won (101-120).
Novak is coming back to Europe where the clay season starts in April. He next plays in Monte Carlo at the third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of the season which begins on April 12.
