Australian Open's 2nd round matches are still high profile victims. Yesterday, it was Marin Cilic ( 7 ATP) and then Nick Kyrgios (13 ATP) on a crash course with both being defeated by low-ranked players. But today, the mayhem inside the main draw seems to be left without a leash as the defending champion Novak Djokovic crashed in front of Denis Istomin ( 117 ATP), a player who made it to the main draw after receiving a wild card from the tournament`s managers. Djokovic's upset let an open road for other players with high aspirations in Melbourne.
Djokovic did not handle the leverage he built up
What should`ve been an easy task to complete, turned out to be fatal. But Denis Istomin had something different in his mind as he seemed determined not to give in without a fight. The 30-year-old player from Uzbekistan made the run of his life in front of the crowd gathered at the Rod Laver Arena.
The opening set was quite an opening statement with the first game of the match lasting for about 15min. It went to a tie-break where Istomin eventually got himself in front and won it by 10-8 after saving a couple of set points. Up next, the match went on the same note and Djokovic had to defend 2 set points. The Serb was suddenly reminded that he won 6 times the title in Melbourne and turned the table around capturing the 2nd act by 7-5.
Things seemed to go on the regular path when Djokovic sealed the 3rd set by 6-2. During this set, Djokovic lost once on his own serve but broke his opponent service game on 3 occasions.
Leading by 2 sets to one once again Djokovic failed to keep the leverage on his side of the court. The 4th set also went into a tie-break and Istomin whose career high ranking is the 33rd place back in 2012, did nothing wrong and pushed the encounter into a decisive 5th set.
The Uzbek played in a controlled manner the last set making a great job on his own serve. In the 5th game of the set following a poor performance from Djokovic, Istomin broke his opponent and took the lead. Despite Djokovic's efforts, the seemingly unknown player from Uzbekistan served to win the match at 5-4 and he did everything by the book causing a huge upset to Djokovic.
Djokovic is heading to the dark side
Djokovic is definitely heading into an uncharted territory if he continues to play this way. It`s the first time since 2006 that the Serb failed to reach at least the 4th round in Melbourne. That give an insight about his consistency over the years but also raises some huge question marks about his future at the top of the ATP ranking.
It`s a downward and dangerous vortex where Djokovic is trapped for the moment. He must win a couple of matches in a row to climb his way out of the pit or change his approach. Besides, his latest matches were not as convincing as they used to be, so that gives his opponents a moral bump. What Verdasco did in Dubai is a great example. A fierce competition means that when other players are smelling insecurity it is similar to what happens when a wild beast smells a trace of fresh blood.
