Nardi stuns Djokovic in Indian Wells upset

INDIAN WELLS:

Lucky loser Luca Nardi scored the biggest win of his young career on Monday, stunning world number one Novak Djokovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 at the ATP-WTA Indian Wells Masters.

The Italian world number 123 ended the veteran Serb’s 11-match Masters winning streak, with Nardi bettering the childhood tennis idol whose poster had hung above his bed since the age of eight.

The 20-year-old was undaunted by Djokovic’s big game and broke Djokovic for a 4-2 lead in the deciding set before sealing victory three games later with an ace match.

The Italian finished with 36 winners and 41 unforced errors, while Djokovic had 31 errors in less than two and a half hours.

“Before tonight nobody knew me,” Nardi said in a courtside interview after his win. “I hope people enjoyed the game; I’m very happy with it.”

Asked how he had achieved the biggest win of his career, Nardi replied: “I don’t know. I think it’s really a miracle. I’m a guy outside the top 100 in the world and now I’m beating Novak — crazy, crazy.”

Nardi reached the main draw at Indian Wells only after retiring. He had been defeated by Belgian David Goffin in the final round of qualifying.

Djokovic meanwhile put his defeat down to a bad day at the office.

“He came in as a lucky loser in the main draw, so he really had nothing to lose,” Djokovic said of Nardi.

“He deserved to win. I was more surprised with my level. My level was really, really bad. It was, those two things combined — he’s having a great day, I’m having a really bad day.”

In other games on Monday, seventh seed Holger Rune finally reached the court after a first-round bye and a second-round bye against the injured Milos Raonic.

The 20-year-old Dane went down and ran the event with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) defeat of Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti.

Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev had to fight his way past Sebastian Korda 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, prevailing in a strange match with 31 break points – 15 conversions.

The winner was reduced to just 14 winners with Korda saddled with more than 60 unforced errors. Medvedev will play Grigor Dimitrov.

The ninth-ranked Norwegian Casper Rud advanced from France’s Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-4.

French top seed Gael Monfils ended 2021 champion Cameron Norrie’s run, with the 36-year-old winner and the Briton playing out a whopping 31 break points in a match Monfils won 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7 ). /5), 6-3.

Tommy Paul, who will next face Nardi, earned a home win with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Dubai champion Hugo Humbert.

Taylor Fritz with him, 6-2, 6-2 over Argentina’s Sebastian Baez.

In the women’s draw, reigning women’s Grand Slam champions Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff reached the fourth round with challenging straight sets victories.

But former number one and 2018 tournament winner Naomi Osaka failed to join them, with the Japanese player knocked out 7-5, 6-4 by Elise Mertens, who now faces Gauff.

The Belgian saved three break points in the final game, advancing to her second match point that caused an error in Osaka.

Osaka, a four-time major winner, is returning to tennis this season after giving birth.

Earlier, doubles Sabalenka defeated Emma Raducanu 6-3, 7-5, but double-faulted in one match and needed three more chances to win before finally going through.

“I was very happy to close this match in two sets; the last game was tight,” Sabalenka said. “If I had lost that game it would have given her a lot more faith and confidence emotionally – going into the tiebreak you never know, it’s 50/50.”

Gauff, who won the US Open last September as a teenager, beat Lucia Bronzetti 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) as she sealed victory in a tiebreak with minimal drama.

The US Open champion, who turns 20 on Wednesday, won her sixth straight match against Italian opposition.

“He played really well,” the winner said of Bronzetti. “But I was a lot better than my last fight – I’m getting better with each one.”