Djokovic defeats Berdych as Diego Maradona watches
Group A’s matches at the Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals commenced today with World Number 3 Novak Djokovic up against Tomas Berdych. Novak raced through the match and won quite easily, ending the day for himself with a score line of 6-3, 6-3.
Possibly the only thing which could put a cap on the victory was the presence of Argentine Diego Maradona, who has been touted as possibly the best football player of all time.
Maradona was also present on Sunday to watch Roger Federer defeat World Number 7 David Ferrer in straight sets, and he returned to the O2 Arena on the second day of the prestigious end of year event to watch Djokovic in action.
The Serbian player has long been a fan of the ex-football player and coach; last year he was presented with a signed jersey by Maradona and declared it to be one of his best presents yet.
Djokovic made short work of the Czech player within two sets. Critics had wondered if Nole would be distracted by the upcoming finals of the Davis Cup, where he will be facing France. However, Djokovic quickly dismantled any doubt of his focus with his victory
at the match.
This was a significant victory for Djokovic, who has rebounded after losing to Berdych earlier in the year at the Wimbledon semi-finals. Djokovic had been much too passive, giving Berdych the opportunity to take the initiative.
Since then, both players have taken completely different routes. While Berdych has been unable to deal with the stress of elevated expectations, Djokovic has thrived on the same element. While the Czech holds a 8-13 win loss record with only four wins in
the past 16 matches, Djokovic has been improving since the beginning of the US Open, going for 27 wins against just 6 losses.
With these statistics in mind and given that Berdych has had trouble concentrating on a slow hard court, he was expected to have a hard time against Nole.
His start in the match was possibly the worst all year round, and he debuted with a double fault. In the first set, he made unforced errors repeatedly. Throughout the match, his groundstrokes were unimpressive and more of a handicap. He failed to make any
points for himself on serve, making the match a repeat of his poor show at Basel and the Paris Masters. He managed to produce two aces more than Djokovic, but also served 41 percent in the opening match.
Djokovic, who combated every second serve of Berdych’s, did not face a single break point. He commented on his opponent’s performance, saying, “He didn't serve well today, so whenever I could, I used my chances, especially on his second serve. I served well
when I needed to.”
Maradona, in Djokovic’s box, gave his Serbian fan a number of standing ovations, jumping out of his feet on at least two occasions to support the player when he scrambled impressively in the third game, as well as in the second set when Djokovic won a rally.
Nole was understandably elated at the end of the match, saying, “It was a great start for me.” He also thanked Maradona from coming, and joked that the Argentine former player was his coach. He said, “Just to have him as a support is incredible honour and
pleasure. He cannot learn from me, I can learn from him. He is much older and much more experienced”.
Djokovic also alluded to Maradona’s 1986 ‘hand of God’ goal, saying, “Hopefully he’ll show me some skills. Maybe even working on some specifics, like how to play with hands, high balls.”
Another sports celebrity, Lucie Safarova was also present at the match. However, she was far less enthusiastic about Djokovic’s win, as in addition to being a WTA pro she is also Tomas Berdych’s long-time girlfriend.
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