GINEBRA.- “I’m worried”. He went to Geneva in search of certainties, but the Serbian Novak Djokovic He leaves Switzerland with more doubts, after being eliminated in the semifinals of this ATP 250 tournament on clay against the Czech Tomas Machac (N.44) by 6-4, 0-6 and 6-1.
“Of course I’m worried. I haven’t played well at all this year,” the legend acknowledged.
“I’ve had some good games here, but it is what it is and I have to accept it. I don’t consider myself a favorite now. I’ll go game by game, we’ll see how far I go,” he said about Roland Garros, which begins on Sunday.
This new setback for the world number 1, in a crisis of results since the beginning of 2024, fuels doubts about his state of form in the hours before the start of the second major of the year, where the Serbian defends his title.
‘Djoko’ had not yet reached a final in 2024, something that had not happened to him at this point in the season since 2018.
Against Machac, Djokovic struggled at the start of the match to maintain his serve, in a game that lasted 11 minutes. More successful in the rest than in the serve, the Serbian scored the first break, 2-1, to confirm the advantage with his own serve and escape 4-1.
And when it seemed that the best Djokovic was reappearing, the Serbian’s game suddenly collapsed.
At 4-2, Djokovic committed several direct faults, lost his serve and allowed Machac to tie 4-4. The Czech took advantage of the chaos to close the first set in 58 minutes.
At that moment, Djokovic asked for medical assistance and started the second set with a double break, playing with intermittent impulses, capable of scoring genius shots and making gross mistakes.
Clean slate for Djokovic:
“I had a bad feeling in my stomach, it wasn’t a good night. But I don’t want to take anything away from his victory, he deserved it. To be honest, I don’t know what to think of this match, I want to forget it and go to Paris,” added the Serbian. .
Even so, Djokovic closed the second set in half an hour (6-0), taking advantage of the Czech’s errors.
But again, the third set brought with it a change of script. Pushed into error on several occasions by a more explosive opponent, the number 1 disconnected again, gave up his serve twice in a row and left the way clear to the final for the Czech after 2 hours and 6 minutes of play.
This will be the first final on the circuit for the 23-year-old, who will face the Norwegian Casper Ruud (N.7) or the Italian Flavio Cobolli (N.56).
Source: AFP
