Jack Draper pulled off a huge upset on Wednesday night when he beat Novak Djokovic in a thrilling three-set match at Indian Wells. The reigning champion returning from a six-month injury layoff beat Djokovic 4-6 6-4 7-6(5).
Both players traded long rallies and one of them had 24 shots in the first game of the third set. Draper lost that point but proved costly for Djokovic, who later admitted that he “ran completely out of gas”.
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova thinks that the 38-year-old should consider having a different approach to his game plan. She pointed out that Djokovic is only tiring himself by playing long rallies.
“I think he’s at that age where he needs to keep the points shorter. He can still tire people out, but that should not be the goal.
“That should be a byproduct of how he is playing, rather than looking for playing defence and tiring people out, running him side to side, because now he’s tiring himself out. You have to give a nod to Father Time eventually, and I think he needs to shorten up the points rather than hoping that he will tire his opponent out,” said Navratilova while speaking on Sky Sports after Djokovic’s fourth-round exit at Indian Wells.
The third seed was broken a few games after that point he won but managed to stay in the contest during the decisive set. He even fought back by breaking Draper when the Brit was serving for the match. However, Draper eventually sealed the win in a tense tiebreak.
Reflecting on the point that he won after a long rally, the five-time champion at Indian Wells, Djokovic said: “One point (made the difference). Yeah, one point. I mean, it cost me a break after, you know. It was great winning that point in that game, but I just, like, ran completely out of the gas and just started to feel a bit better towards basically end of the third.
“He played a sloppy game to close it out 5-4, and, you know, I got the crowd, you know, backing me, and I felt the energy. It was, like, maybe I’m gonna take this one. It was so close, so close. I mean, just unfortunate few mistakes from my side. Tiebreak, 4-3 up. 5-5, as well. That’s tennis.”
The Serbian had dominated the event in the past, winning the title five times between 2008 and 2016. However, his results dipped after that, with just one quarterfinal appearance until now. This year also marked his first time reaching the fourth round at the tournament since 2017.
“I mean, bitter feeling right now, losing a match like this. But proud of myself for fighting and really giving it all on the court. That’s for sure,” Djokovic added.
“That’s the one thing that I’ll take as a highlight, you know, just the fact of not giving up and trying. I mean, obviously I lost to a great player, and it was really such an even match throughout the entire two-and-a-half hours. But, yeah, just a bit disappointed, of course, with getting off the court, fresh off the court. It is okay. I mean, I wish I could have done better, but it was a good fight.”
