Erste Bank Open: Novak Djokovic after the end - "Achieved what I came for"
Novak Djokovic raised a few questions with his performance against Lorenzo Sonego . And had a rather questionable answer to it.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Oct 30, 2020, 09:37 pm
By Michael Rothschädl from the Wiener Stadthalle
At first they thought of a cold start that Novak Djokovic should put in the quarter-finals of the Erste Bank Open. After the first sentence it should have been a mixed passage. After the break in the second sentence it was slowly becoming clear that it was not the usual Novak Djokovic who stepped across the Center Court on Friday, that this version of the Serb had very little to do with that Novak Djokovic, who in the meantime even had one undefeated 2020 season toying.
World number one Lorenzo Sonego was supposed to offer something like "resistance" for just 68 minutes. Then it was over with the performances of the 17-time Grand Slam champion in the Austrian capital. Nobody could really believe that at the time. Djokovic then stayed in the catacombs as quickly as usual and was ready to answer questions from the curious crowd of journalists just a few minutes later.
In the first round, Lorenzo Sonego, the lucky loser, number 42 in the ATP charts, would have "simply shot him off the pitch." Despite the defeat, he would now look ahead, as the Serb emphasized. "I came here to fix number one at the end of the year, and I did that. I achieved what I came here for. I'm looking ahead," said Djokovic. "I can handle the result well and look to the next chapter." There is not much variance in the words of the world number one.
"Achieved what I came here for"
The fact that he was number one in the world rankings by the end of the year with his victory over Borna Coric on Wednesday has certainly had an impact on the Serbs, he admits. "I achieved what I came here for: to secure number one," should say the Serb, who is already looking to the future after a few days off in his home country.
In his case, the future is the Nitto ATP Finals, until which the industry leader will now have a slightly longer break than initially assumed. At the ATP Masters 1000 event in Paris Bercy, which starts on Monday and where the Serb won the title last year , Djokovic will be missing from the world rankings - he will still have the points despite not taking part in the ranking. "I'm looking forward to a strong end in London," said Djokovic minutes after one of the clearest defeats in his career, only looking at the ATP finals.