On what seemed like a typical Monte-Carlo afternoon, World No 55 Jiri Vesely won the match of his life by beating defending champion Novak Djokovic 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
This marks the first time since Shanghai 2014 that Novak Djokovic has failed to make a Masters 1000 final. He’d won 9 of the last 11 Masters 1000’s he’d competed in, which really does emphasize the size of the task put in front of Vesely in this particular match up. No player outside the Top 50 had beaten Novak Djokovic since World #74 Xavier Malisse got the better of him in London Queens of 2010. Also, when reiterating how huge this win is, on the clay courts leading up to Roland Garros, no player outside the Top 50 had beaten Djokovic in a full match on clay since Umag 2007, where he lost to Viktor Troicki.
Just How Shocking Was Jiri Vesely’s Upset Over World #1 Novak Djokovic?
The 22-year-old Czech player has been climbing up the rankings steadily over the past five seasons. His most notable result on the ATP tour culminated in Auckland at the beginning of 2015, where he picked up the title, his first title as a qualifier. But even with his accomplishments as a former World #1 junior and his adaptation to the grueling schedule on the ATP tour, no one quite saw this upset brewing.
Novak Djokovic has been virtually unplayable for the best part of two long seasons and notched an 82-6 win-loss record in 2015, which has been identified as his best season on the tour, even bettering his 2011 season. The three Grand Slam title victories were impressive in 2015, but in my opinion the dominance he has shown at Masters 1000 level is remarkable and really has represented a professional tennis player taking professional tennis to new heights.
Djokovic’s results didn’t necessarily just manifest from the Serbian #1 player playing great tennis week in and week out; there were periods like against Gilles Simon at the Australian Open this year, against Kevin Anderson at Wimbledon last year, where he does genuinely look like losing his grip on making history but he finds a way to win near enough every time. That’s why today’s loss to Jiri Vesely is a shocking result, not just in tennis but in sport in general. Novak Djokovic has constantly made a name for himself from not playing his greatest tennis, but having the belief to get the desired and designed result. And that’s something many players in the past like David Goffin and Aleksandr Dolgopolov have lacked and that’s the conviction and sole belief that on that particular day they could outlast Novak Djokovic. It’s one of the hardest things to do in our sport, but former Australian Open junior champion Jiri Vesely did it and deserves all the plaudits for it.
Main Photo:
