Novak Djokovic Survives Fratangelo Scare In Indian Wells Opener - UBITENNIS

Novak Djokovic Survives Fratangelo Scare In Indian Wells Opener

By Jakub Bobro
3 Min Read
World number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns a shot to Bjorn Fratangelo of USA at the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 13, 2016, in Indian Wells, California. / AFP / ROBYN BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

The World No. 1, Novak Djokovic started tournament with a tough match against the American Bjorn Fratangelo. The Serb rallied back from a set down to win 2-6 6-1 6-2 and face the 27th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber.

From the start you could see that Djokovic was not at his usual level. He got broken easily in his opening two service games and got down to 0-3. Fratangelo then pulled through a tough service game with 2 break points. Djokovic won his first game at 0-4. At that point, he already made 15 unforced errors. Djokovic also seemed to have troubles with his backhand. He didn’t have the usual motion there and ended up slicing a lot of balls. Fratangelo faced a break point on his next service game, but pulled through, being aggressive and very precise on his ground strokes. Both players held and Djokovic dropped his first set against a player outside of a Top 100 since 2010.

Djokovic started presenting a higher level of his game and was pushing Fratangelo right from the start, winning his serve to love, having 2 break points on Fratangelo’s service game, and then held his serve to love. After that, he dropped just 3 more points in the set and won the set easily, 6-1.

Djokovic kept his momentum, as he broke Fratangelo in the first game of the deciding set, but Fratangelo didn’t give up, fought back and took the break back on his fourth break point in the game. From then on, Djokovic seemed back in his form and did what he does to players of Fratangelo’s caliber, as if the first set didn’t even happen. After a hard-fought game at 2-2, Djokovic took the lead with a break, and Fratangelo didn’t win another game. Djokovic steam-rolled through the last 4 games, not letting any of them go into deuce. After beating the American qualifier, Bjorn Fratangelo, who defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili the round before, Novak Djokovic will face the 27th seed, Philipp Kohlschreiber.

 

Leave a comment