Indian Wells.- The Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic On Saturday suffered another early elimination in the Masters 1000 of Indian Wells (United States), where the Spanish Carlos Alcarazwho debuted successfully, continues to see his main rivals fall.
Alcaraz already started the hunt for his third title followed without having in front of the Italian Jannik Sinner, the world number one, which is suspended until May for his positive per clostebol.
In the first week of competition, in addition, he saw other members of the Top-10 of the ATP such as Alexander Zverev (2), Casper Ruud (5) and Andrey Rublev (8).
To them was added on Saturday Djokovic (7), who fought his knee at his premiere in the Californian desert against the Netherlands Botic Van de Zandschulp 6-2, 3-6 and 6-1.
“There are no excuses for this bad performance,” said the Balkan. “It was a bad day, I couldn’t find the rhythm.”
Van de Zandschulp, who will be a rival of the Argentine Francisco closing him in the third round, had already given a bombing eliminating Alcaraz from the United States open past.
At 37, Djokovic continues to try to squeeze the last balls of his extraordinary career. With a sixth crown in Indian Wells he would have surpassed Roger Federer as the largest winner of this tournament and would also have reached 100 trophies in the ATP.
All these goals vanished in their first function on the central track of Indian Wells, where a year ago he had already been shot down in the third round against Luca Nardi, then World Cup number 123.
An erratic djokovic, without legs or fang, fit his third defeat followed by the year and enlarged the concerns around the last member of the legendary ‘Big 3’ that he formed with Federer and Rafael Nadal.
“Things are different for me in the last two years,” he acknowledged. “I’ve been fighting to play at the desired level (…) most of the time is really a challenge.”
“I don’t think number one”
Alcaraz, on his side, had a placid debut against the Frenchman Quentin Halys (59) that came out 6-4 and 6-2.
The Spanish star, which chains 13 games won in a row in the Coachella Valley, will face a more complicated test on Monday in front of the Canadian Denis Shapovalov (28 of the ATP).
Although Sinner and Zverev, the first two of the ranking, are out of the tournament, Alcaraz does not want to think about his goal of recovering the top of the ATP.
For that “I have to generate good results and win tournaments. If I focus only on recovering number one, I put an extra pressure,” he said.
