Novak Djokovic suffered his worst loss in 12 years at the Madrid Open as he lost to Matteo Arnaldi in the opening round on Saturday.
Djokovic lost 3-6, 4-6, to Arnaldi in straight games. He last lost an opening-round match at the clay-court event in 2013 against Grigor Dimitrov after a three-set match.
Arnaldi, meanwhile, earned his second win over top-5 to move on to the third round of the ATP Masters 1000 event.
“Yeah, pretty much [it feels like a dream] without any doubt,” remarked the Italian.
“He’s my idol, he has always been, so I was just glad that I could play him [Djokovic] because I had never played him – just practised once.
“So, to play him on a stage like this was already a victory for me, but, he’s not at his best right now, so I came on the court to try to play my best tennis and win, and it happened.
“Right now, I don’t even know what to say.”
The Italian had won a three-set thriller against Born Coric in the opening round but looked more comfortable against Djokovic at the Manolo Santana stadium. He made use of his second match point to clinch the biggest win of his career.
“At the start, I just tried to not s*** in my pants to be honest,” said the world No 44, who will next face Damir Dzumhur.
“That was the main thing because, when I got on this court – I had never even practised on this court – so you don’t know anything, you don’t know the points of the court.
“Playing him, I just tried to rally a bit at the start, try to make him make mistakes. Then, the tension started to go away, and he gave me a little bit in a few games.
“For sure, when I broke him, I knew that I was going to be broken back straight after, then I was like ‘ok, that’s a good start.’ After that, it was an escalation and it became quite a good match.
“I have to watch the match again. Like I said, I have been watching him play since I was a kid, nine, ten, I always tried to play like him, so, at that point (in the 4-3 game in the second set), we were pretty similar and I won that point.”
Leave a Reply