After spending a bit of time away from the game, in peace with his newly born baby and his wife, its business time again for Novak Djokovic, the top ranked player in the world.
The 27-year old made his way to the French capital last evening to play in BNP Paribas Masters.
His opponent in the second round there will be the Germany International Philipp Kohlschreiber who demolished the local boy Edouard Roger Vasselin in the straight sets yesterday.
Djokovic might still be at the top of the world rankings, but, he is not totally safe there. He does not have a big lead over the second ranked Roger Federer.
The margin between the two is not even of 500 points now. So, it’s important for Djokovic to make sure that he wins the masters in Paris.
Djokovic has not lost any match on the indoor courts for the last two years. His last defeat in an indoor arena had come in 2012.
But, the draw that he has been given in Paris is not the easiest and he knows that. He emphasized that point while addressing the press after landing there.
In the words of the Serb, “The draw is pretty difficult. I have to play against Philipp first up and he is a very fine player I believe. He doesn’t seem to struggle on any kind of court and especially on the courts over here which are going to be slightly on the slower side, he would feel comfortable. Considering the way he has played in his first game, I am not expecting anything easy from his side. I will have to play really, really well to get better of him, that’s for sure.”
So far, there have been 6 games played between Djokovic and Kohlschreiber and the former has won 5 out of them.
Roger Federer suffered a defeat in the French Open Round of 16 yesterday. He was up against the Latvian youngster Ernests Gulbis whom he was supposed to overcome very easily, but, it wasn’t to be. In a marathon match that went on for quite long, it’s Gulbis who managed to come on top of the Swiss maestro.
This is Federer’s worst performance in the French Open in the last one decade. He had been making it to the quarter final round at the Rolland Garros since the last 9 years, but, unfortunately, he couldn’t do that this time around.
Gulbis who is considered as one of the most unpredictable players going around on the tour was over the moon after the match. Speaking in the post match interview, he said, “I would rate it as the biggest victory that I have ever pulled off in my career. I have got better of Roger before as well, but, that match had only 3 sets. But, here, I defeated him in 5 sets. So, it would do my confidence a world of good.”
The result of the match was heartbreaking for the spectators who had turned up in big numbers to cheer for Federer. They kept screaming Roger, Roger right through the contest.
To be fair to Federer, he didn’t play poor tennis. He was actually fantastic at times. It’s just that he lost his shape towards the end which proved to be costly.
If Federer had won this match, he would have reached the quarter final of a major tournament for the 42nd time.
He was very disappointed not to be able to do so. After the match, the Swiss star said, “It hurts to get knocked out like this, it really hurts.”
The agent of Andy Murray has hinted that the player would not part ways with his current coach Amelie Mauresmo despite having a bit of a dreadful grass court season.
Murray has taken part in a couple of tournaments since Mauresmo’s appointment i.e. the AEGON international and the Wimbledon Championships. His performance in both those tournaments has been mediocre.
He couldn’t even get to the Round of 4 in Wimbledon as he suffered defeat at the hands of Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in the quarter finals. It was the Scot’s worst outing at the All England Club in the last 5 years.
After that defeat, the rumours were circulating that the association of Murray and Mauresmo would come to an end, but, it doesn’t seem to be the case now.
If the fresh reports are to be believed, Murray is looking to continue working with the former French player at least for a few more months and he would be giving her a contract extension pretty soon.
Mauresmo was initially signed up only for a few weeks on a trial basis. Murray had said that he would be evaluating her performance as coach after the Wimbledon Championships.
The experts have different opinions on this issue. There are a few who think that Murray should try and find a good male coach for himself, while, the others are of the opinion that Mauresmo deserves a bit more time.
Meanwhile, the exit from the Wimbledon quarter finals has seen Murray drift down to the 10th position in the World rankings.
Murray’s highest world ranking so far in his career is no. 2 which he had achieved in 2009. Now, to get back to that position, he will surely have to do a lot of hard work.
Uncategorized | Liam | 
November 17, 2014 3:23 pm | 
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