Novak Djokovic Upset By Dominick Thiem In Quarterfinals Of French Open

The second-best tennis player in the world, Novak Djokovic, fell in straight sets to Dominick Thiem in the quarterfinals of the French Open on Wednesday in Paris.

The No. 2 seed Djokovic fell to the No. 6 seed and seventh-best player in the world in Thiem 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-0. The match seemed to be smooth sailing for Thiem, and he will face Rafael Nadal in the semifinals.

The defending French Open champion looked lost on the clay court, and Wednesday marked the first time in 2016 in Rome where he lost a set without winning a single game. This occurrence has only happened to Djokovic nine times in his tour-level career, but with three of them coming in Grand Slams.

Djokovic was also trying to become the first player in the Open Era and just the third player ever to win every Grand Slam twice. He had finally won every tournament when he defeated Englishmen Andy Murray to win the French Open last year, but repeating is never an easy task, especially in tennis.

The Serbian came into the match 5-0 all-time against Thiem, but fall handily in just two hours and 15 minutes. Thiem posted 38 winners to Djokovic’s 18, and Thiem had 28 unforced errors as opposed to 35 for Djokovic. The third and final set of course, put the game to rest as Thiem improves to 22-4 on clay this season. He will have to face arguably the best clay court player on the planet in Nadal, a nine-time French Open champion, on Friday.

Djokovic said in a press conference that, “Obviously nothing was going my way and everything his way. All in all, it was decided I think in the first set. He deserved to win. He was definitely the better player on the court today.”

Article by Matthew Lamb