On Thursday Ricardas Berankis will face what is one of the toughest tests there can be in men’s tennis – a showdown with Novak Djokovic.
The French Open has been a place of misery for the 30-year-old Lithuanian, who is currently ranked 66th in the world, until this year. Making his main draw debut back in 2013 he has fallen in the first round six times in total. The losing streak finally came to an end on Tuesday when Breankis dismissed clay court specialist Hugo Dellien 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. Dellien has won 21 titles on the Challenger and Futures Tour in his career with all of his victories occurring on the clay.
Ahead of Berankis’ showdown with the world No.1, UbiTennis had a brief chat with his coach. Dirk Hordorff has a wealth of experiencing when it comes to coaching on the Tour after working with the likes of Rainer Schuettler, Janko Tipsarevic, Vasek Pospisil. He is also vice president of the German Tennis Federation.
“Ricardo won his first match ever at Roland Garros against a clay court specialist, Hugo Dellien and played three fine sets,” Hordorff told UbiTennis.
“He played Nole (Djokovic) in Cincinnati in the third round and was competitive but still he lost in two,” he added.
Their previous meeting took place only last month at the Western and Southern Open in what was Djokovic’s first on the Tour since the five-month break due to COVID-19. Berankis did manage to break Djokovic three times on that occasion but failed to consolidate every time. Leading to the Serbian clinching a 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 victory at the Masters 1000 tournament.
This time around the two will be locking horns on a different surface but Hordorff admits that the chances of a shock victory are low. Berankis has only defeated a top 10 player in two out of 13 attempts. Both of those wins were against Milos Raonic on a hard court in 2014 and 2016.
“The surface favours Nole and everything else other than Nole winning would be sensational,” said Hordorff.
“Still Ricardas will go out and try to challenge as best as possible. He has his match plan and we will see how the match is going.”
Berankis’ clash against Djokovic will be the third match on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Thursday.
