Novak Djokovic/ Viktor Troicki defeat Oliver Marach/ Lukasz Kubot in doubles thriller
Novak Djokovic and Victor Troicki of Serbia defeated the 7th seeded pairing of Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach in a doubles thriller today at the BNP Paribas Open. The first ATP Masters 1000 event of the year is being
held at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens in Indian Wells, California.
Rather surprisingly, the event features some of the biggest singles stars in tennis competing in the doubles draw. Besides Novak World number 3 Djokovic, World number 1 Rafael Nadal, World number 2 Roger Federer, World number 5
Andy Murray and World number 6 David Ferrer are all featured in the doubles this time round. Of these, only Ferrer’s team has been eliminated. Federer and his partner Wawrinka even eliminated the second seeded pairing of Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi in their
first round match up.
Djokovic and Troicki are both singles experts. Yet they have had success as a doubles pairing, especially in Davis Cup ties. Kubot and Marach are two of the most experienced doubles players on the circuit. They are ranked 9th in
the world as a team and have played 13 matches together so far this year. Their record has not been remarkable, as they’ve won 7 and lost 6 of those ties.
Their match here started off with the Serbs leading. Djokovic and Troicki landed in 72 per cent of their first serves and won 61 per cent of their first serve points. Their opponents were not much worse at landing in first serves,
clocking in at 65 per cent. They were, however, rather atrocious in winning points off their own service. The Pole/Austrian pairing only won 42 per cent of their total service points, and in the course of such horrendous serving, gave up three breaks off of
nine opportunities. The Serbs too gave up one break off of four break points, but their two extra wins handed them the set 6-2.
The second set saw something of a reversal take place. The Serbs landed in 73 per cent of their first serves this time round, but their opponents brought their percentage down to 50. However, the 7th seeds were much
better at winning points on serve, as they showed by dropping only 2 out of 14 points on their first serve. Creating 6 chances to break, the pair only needed one to seal the set off 6-4 and tie things up 1-1.
In doubles, a tie-break ensues if the score is 1-1, and that is what happened here. In this position the Serbs utilized their singles skills quite well to come out on top. They landed in 67 per cent of their first serves, in contrast
to the meager 13 per cent their opponents managed. They also only dropped 2 points on serve and managed to win 3 on return to take the match.
In the next round, Djokovic and Troicki will take on veteran doubles players from South Asia. Paes/Bhupati compete against Qureshi/Bopanna for a quarterfinal spot, and it would be the victors of this match who’ll take on the Serbian
duo.
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