BEVERLY HILLS, April 15, (THEWILL) –Â There was an upset on the cards in Novak Djokovic’s previous match coming into Thursday’s clash with world Number 33, Daniel Evans, but the highest ranked tennis player in the world took it in his stride, kept his service game top-notch and delivered a high quality return level to set aside the threat and forge ahead in a year that has seen him win everyone in front of him, until Thursday.
In their third round of the Monte Carlo Masters, there was no coming back for Djokovic’s first defeat of the year against the British professional tennis player, Evans. After 10 wins out of 10 matches in 2021, the Australian Open champion, had the wind of confidence about his game and was in that mood watchers of the Serb’s game easily recognise.
However, Djokovic faced pressure from the outset as he trailed 3-0 to the unseeded British player in their first meeting. There was no noticeable edginess in Evans’ game as nothing showed that he was engaging the best male performer in the sport.
In an extremely uncharacteristic display, Djokovic dropped his serve five times in windy conditions but it was difficult to attribute the performance to the wind as Djokovic has been known to handle these conditions comfortably. The 30-year-old Brit, broke again for a 6-5 lead, before claiming victory on his first match point with a forehand winner that clipped the net on the way to win 6-4 7-5.
Buzzing with excitement about defeating Djokovic, Evans said in his post-match remarks: “It probably hasn’t sunk in yet, I couldn’t quite believe that last ball went over the net. It nearly didn’t.
“It’s clearly a big win. That’s the biggest thing, you’ve got to believe you can win. Serving it out isn’t easy, you’ve got all these things going through your head.
“This will be one to tell the kids and grandkids about, that I beat the world No. 1.”
For his next match in his first Masters quarter-finals, the undeseeded Evans will be up against 11th-seeded David Goffin, who was involved in another upset after he knocked out fifth-seeded German Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-6 (7). The Belgian saved all six break points he faced and broke the imposing German’s serve once to reach straight sets victory.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
