Djokovic Upset At Rogers Cup
Novak Djokovic was eliminated from the Rogers Cup on Thursday as he fell to 13th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third-round from Toronto. The world number one and top seeded Djokovic was defeated fairly easily by Tsonga, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 victory in just over an hour.
Tsonga was the more efficient player all match long who fired 23 winners while also picking up all four break point opportunities he had. The Frenchman clinched the victory after a Djokovic return shot drifted wide.
“It’s not every day you get the rewards of what you’re doing every day during the year,” said Tsonga who was visibly fired up after the match. “You leave your family, practice every day hard and suffer a lot on the court. And when you win a match like this, you just feel good.”
Djokovic had won 11 straight matches against Tsonga dating back to 2010. It is also his first straight-set loss on a hard court in 57 matches, a streak that dates back to last year.
While the Serb was disappointed in his own play, he credited Tsonga for just outplaying him.
“Congratulations to Jo,” said Djokovic, who was playing in only his second match since winning Wimbledon. “He played some great tennis. Served very well. He was obviously the better player on the court. I hadn’t played even close to what I intended before going to the court. Just nothing was going. No baseline, no serve, no return. Generally a very bad day, very poor performance. Couldn’t do much.”
Tsonga will now move on and face eighth-seeded Andy Murray after he advanced when Richard Gasquet retired during their third-round match.
Djokovic was not the only top five player to be bit by the upset bug on Thursday as Stan Wawrinka saw his Rogers Cup run come to an end as well. South African Kevin Anderson knocked off the fourth-ranked Swiss 7-6(8), 7-5 to notch his 30th match win of the season.
Anderson ripped 29 winners and 11 aces to tame the Australian Open champion. He will meet Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the quarterfinals after the seventh-seeded Dimitrov hung on to beat Tommy Robredo.
Roger Federer faced a little trouble in his third-round match Thursday but was able to outlast Marin Cilic for the 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-4 victory. He didn’t award a break point to Cilic all match, and picked up a key break point in the third-set to hold off the Croatian.
Federer will meet David Ferrer, who came back to beat Ivan Dodig, in the quarterfinals.
“[Ferrer] is an unbelievable returner and has some of the best second-serve returns in the game,” said a complimentary Federer. “If I don’t play well, he’s one of those guys that you’re not going to come through [against].”
The other quarterfinal match will feature Canadian Milos Raonic, who needed three-sets to get past France’s Julien Benneteau, and Feliciano Lopez of Spain who fought back from a set down to upend fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych.
