Saturday, May 30, 2009

Djokovic downed by German


2009 French Open - Day Seven


Fourth seed Novak Djokovic crashed out of the French Open at the third-round stage, losing in straight sets to Philipp Kohlschreiber.

The German 29th seed was a 6-4 6-4 6-4 winner over Djokovic, who has reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros for the past two years.

The result is even more of a surprise given the Croatian's great clay-court campaign, which has seen him win a title in Belgrade, make two finals - in Monte Carlo and Rome - and reach a semi-final in Madrid.

Kohlschreiber, who had previously never gone further than the second round here, will play Tommy Robredo next.

Kohlschreiber was a deserved winner, and he sealed victory with a fine cross-court backhand.

Djokovic, who made far too many unforced errors throughout the match, will lose ground on the top three in the rankings now.

He was clearly second best in the first set, which Kohlschreiber secured in 40 minutes.

If things were not bad enough for the 22-year-old, he then fell 5-2, 40-0 behind in the second set.

He saved all three set points, the third with an exquisite drop shot from behind the baseline, and ended up breaking to pull it back to 5-4.

Kohlschreiber earned himself another set point in the 10th game and that was not squandered, Djokovic going long to put the German two sets up.

Djokovic saved a break point in the first game of the third set to hold, and the following seven games also went with serve.

But he found himself 15-40 down when serving at 4-4 and although he saved the first break point, Kohlschreiber brought the house down with a thunderous backhand down the line from way behind the baseline.

The German, who defeated 2003 champion Juan Carlos Ferrero in round two, completed a famous victory, allowing him to equal his best performance at a grand slam. He has reached the last 16 twice at the Australian Open, in 2005 and 2008.

Robredo, the 16th seed, is next up for Kohlschreiber after the Spaniard defeated Argentina's Maximo Gonzalez in four sets earlier today.

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