Novak Djokovic lost in Round 2 (his first match in the tournament) against Kevin Anderson in 3 sets, 7:6(1) 3:6 6:4. The only way to describe the match is 'ups'!
Kevin, who played 'futures' and 'challengers' just 3 months ago, showed in early stage of the match just how much he improved. He won his service games with easy and gave no chances to Novak for breaks.
The only break point Novak had was at 6:5 and 40:30, unfortunately he did not use the opportunity and the set went to tie-break. Usually this ment 'no problemo' for winning the set for Novak who is known as 'king of the tie-breaks' but this time Novak was himself.
In tie-break Novak won only 1 point, even that 1 point was thanks to Kevin who made a double service fault when leading 1:0.
Second set made the things look like coming to their place after 1:1 and 2:2 Novak made a break for 3:2 lead, then another break in 9th game for 6:3 in 2nd set. Novak had psychological advantage entering the 3rd set, though Kevin still had nothing to lose.
3rd set started ideally for Novak win 2:0 lead. What happened afterwards is a subject to analyses and comments in the upcoming period, Kevin started playing as if in trance and turned things around to have 4:2 lead.
Novak gave his everything, he narrowed the margine to 3:4 and 4:5, but in the last game after being down 15:40, he managed to make it 40:40, but he didn't managed to defend 3 match point.
Kevin, current World #122, made a sensation in Miami by eliminating defending champion and World #3 Novak after 2 hours and 21 minutes of play. Anderson will match up with Igor Andreev in next round, the player Novak always wins against, 'auch'!Unexpected early exit in Miami will cost Novak to lose almost all 500 ATP points he won in Miami last year as the title winner. This will not make Novak lose World #3 position as he is ahead of World #4 Nikolay Davydenko by more than 2.5000 points but he made a big step back in chase for World #2 Rafael Nadal and World #1 Roger Federer.
After winning first Grand Slam of the season, then first Master Series Tournament played in Indian Wells last week, Novak was praised even by World #1 as real title contender, but now summing the month achievents of playing Master Series tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami, Novak even degressed as he was last year's Indian Wells finalist and did not earn too many ATP points for winning it this year, after debacle in Miami Novak lost a huge number of ATP points.
As I moved through the apartment and heard someone mentioning Jelena Jankovic on TV, I said to my sister that Novak lost in his first match in Miami, she replied 'he must to have been tired'!? :)
Well, this could be one of the reasons. After a long and exhausting 10 days in Indian Wells, and after the Final match, Novak flew to Los Angeles where he attended NBA games, etc, and he didn't seem to give himself much time to rest.
This does not diminish Kevin's great form, from participating in 'futures' and 'challengers' a couple of months ago, he made it to the final of Las Vegas as a qualifier at the beginning of March, achieved career high World #121 position on March 10, now won against World #3 in Miami.
Still, no one saw it coming, not Novak who was probably still in celebration mood after Indian Wells ready to defend his title in Miami, not this fan blog who didn't find it necessary to go through player profiles of Novak's opponent in early Round with the prospect for Novak's win more than likely.
I just went through Official ATP website to see if Kevin ever won against a player from Top 30 but his 'career highlights/bio' is empty, this is probably because he was never Top 100 player.
The best thing of it all, he's older than Novak (Kevin is 22) and you would never guess when Kevin turned pro... in the second part of 2007!? In 3 months of 2008 he will earn at least 5 times more than during his entire career (in 2007 that is). Another interesting fact about Kevin is his height 2 (6'7") making him one of the tallest players in the ATP Tour.
Congratulations to Kevin and we wish him luck against Igor Andreev in Round 3 which would be the biggest success of his career to reach so far away if he is to win that match, Kevin already secured new career highest ranking with Round 2 win against Novak.
We expected to have a lot to write day-to-day about Novak's plays in Miami, today it's one big 'auch' and we will add Novak's interviews in the following days. Once again, auch...
