Djokovic stunned by Kohlschreiber

Novak Djokovic’s dreams of capturing the 2009 French Open title evaporated this afternoon, as German 29th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber swept the fourth seed aside in straight sets, 6-4 6-4 6-4 in 2 hours 21 minutes. Fourth seed Djokovic was strangely out of sorts. He struggled to find his timing all match long, hitting 38 unforced errors and a whole bunch more that were forced upon him by Kohlschreiber’s incessant long hitting, both down the line and cross court. Djokovic was understandably dejected after the match. "What is disappointing was that I couldn't find the rhythm throughout the whole match. This is what I was always managing to do. You know, that's why I'm in the top of the men's game for a while now.Physically I felt good, but it's just a bad day at the office. What can you do? This is sport. " This is not the first time the German has caused an upset. He knocked Andy Roddick out of the Australian Open last year, but no-one really expected him to trouble the Serb, who some had tipped to overthrow the great Rafael Nadal this year. Djokovic recently pushed the world number one all the way, after all, in Madrid, only losing after letting three match points slip away. Novak was unrecognisable today though and wilted in the sun as Kohlschreiber made hay on Court 1, particularly on the backhand, which he used to great effect. Novak will now need to recover in time for Wimbledon. He looked tired today, understandably after a long clay court season that he may look to shorten next year. Looking forward, he said "I cannot allow myself to have such a bad performance as I had today. I cannot allow myself to be that defensive. This is not me. This is not my game." Kohlschreiber, in contrast, can now revise his ambitions upwards. On this form the German could find a way past Tommy Robredo and into the quarter-finals, where he would face the winner of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga – Juan Martin del Potro, both of whom will have taken note of today’s result…