Tennis
Djokovic: Shock defeat of No. 123, Giri Veseli and fall of No. 1 in the world rankings
World No. 123 Giri Veseli prevailed against Novak Djokovic’s 2-0 set and knocked him out of the tournament in tuba, but also from world No. 1.
Novak Djokovic suffered a shock defeat to world No. 123 tennis player Giri Veseli, eliminated in the Quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and is ranked No. 2 in the world as of next week!
Incredible performance from the 28-year-old Czech, who capitalized on every mistake Nole made and took him down for the first time since March 20.
Danil Medvedev will be the new number 1 in the world rankings next week, Djokovic will fall back to second place after his defeat against Veseli 6-4, 7-6 (4)in the “8” of the 500v500 tournament in Dubai.
Failing to capture the Czech energy, Nole received three breaks in the game and despite the fact that he reached two points away (6-4, 5-6 and 30-30) after a big upset in the 2nd set, he left the court … without even winning a set!
This was Djokovic’s first loss of 2022 and his first against a tennis player outside the Top100 since April 2018. Back then, he was defeated by Martin Klizan (No.140) on the Barcelona floor. Now Giri Veseli is making history!
In the 2nd duel between them, the Czech celebrates his 2nd victory (he had also beaten Djokovic in Monte Carlo in 2016) against the 34-year-old Serb and remains undefeated in their encounters.
Veseli, in mathematics, made Daniel Medvedev the new No. 1 in the world. However, to achieve dominance, it had to go through 1,000 waves.
Despite serving unsuccessfully to win 6-4, 5-4, Djokovic grabbing a break (5-5) and staying alive to claim the win, the 28-year-old found his composure and ‘closed’ the match 2nd set tie-breaker, playing some great points.
Unaware of the danger in his shots, Veseli won 48/74 points off serve, saving 3/5 break point chances from Djokovic and, capitalizing on his great returns, won 14/24 points off the Serb’s 2nd serve to “hurt” him beyond repair.
With 3/8 break chances, the world No. 123 tennis player finished the match waiting in the semifinals to find his next opponent who will result from the match between Denis Sapovalov (No. 14) and Ricardas Berankis (No. 99) .
SOURCE: Tennis24
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