Google News
Is a great pass a drag or a pass? The public in Rome wonders with curiosity about Stan Wawrinka, 37, former world number 3, champion of 3 Slams in the era of the Fab Four, beating the number 1 of the time: Nadal, at the Australian Open 2014 Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros.
2015 and Nole again at the US Open 2016. The 37-year-old Swiss is the second most unlucky of the champions, with 2 operations on his knee and 2 on his foot, always on the left. He won 16 titles and, above all, 11 finals in a row in the golden years, from 2014 to 2016, including the 2014 Monte Carlo Masters 1000 against the "Switzerland 1", Roger Federer, with whom he achieved Olympic gold in doubles.
In his specific history in Rome, to qualify for the 2008 final, he had eliminated 4 future kings of the classification: Safin in the first round, Murray in the second, Ferrero in the third and Roddick in the semi-final, only to lose to would-be next No.
1 Djokovic in the final. He returned to the Foro Italico from 361 in the ranking: last year he played just 6 matches but in mid-March he greeted the circuit and reappeared directly 12 months later in Marbella, immediately losing to Elias Ymer in straight sets.
The same in Monte Carlo with Bublik, from whom he nevertheless took a set. And, in his growth, in the IBI he defeated the bomber Reilly Opelka in his debut, he won the arm wrestling match against the massive but disgusting and unpredictable Serbian Laslo Djere.
He can now dream of reliving old times and re-proposing the challenge to Djokovic in the third round, with whom he is 6-19 in heads-up matches, but to much cheering from the DOC.
Nole Djokovic won 20 Grand Slams
World No.
1 Novak Djokovic has joined Alexander Zverev in speaking out against the organizers of the Madrid Open for scheduling a late-night semifinal on Saturday ahead of Sunday's final. "You can't finish your semifinal match at 1:00 AM and play the final the next day.
I understand that they want to sell more tickets by scheduling a late night session on Saturday, but that can cause problems," he said. During his press conference, Djokovic stressed that tournament organizers should ideally speak to players regarding scheduling and revealed that he had attempted to sort out the issue when he was president of the ATP Players' Council.
"The organizers should talk to the players before making these kinds of decisions," the World No. 1 said. "When I was the president of the Players' Council several years ago, I tried to solve this problem. But still, nothing changed."
