Sveta, Masha, JJ and Rezai all through yesterday – needless to say, I’m mighty chuffed and, frankly, a little relieved. Not often my stable comes out 4/4 and largely unscathed.
But what sort of a blogger would I be if I didn’t have someat to say on Djoko?
I admit it. When he went two sets down, I thought his falcon was cooked.
The subsequent first round loss would have been his first since Aus 2006 and only the third time he’s not seen the light of the second week since Flushing the same year.
But survive he did.
I know some will say Viktor played the minion to perfection.
I know that even more will use this match as ammo to suggest Novak can in fact go the distance if he now ever elects to throw the towel in.
The more interesting question for me is whether going to the mattresses in this way will have left Novak truly bereft of any survival skills along with anything and everything else he left out on court today.
Or whether he’ll, in fact, benefit from the knowledge that he can now bank on his body to wage war on Middle Earth itself in Sub-Saharan temperatures over five sets.
Hoping it’s the latter.
I have no idea whether it’s something in the air.
I have no idea whether it’s down to it being 40 deg C on court.
But the prevailing theme for this first act of Flushing seems to be to make the top seeds suffer. With a smattering of global warming thrown in for kicks.
So far only Rafa/Roger and Bepa have bucked the trend.
But their time will come. Trust me.
*Cackling in the night*
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