Novak Djokovic is still waiting for his first ever win in Barcelona. Before appearing this year the former world number one had only one appearance in Barcelona back in 2006 and his second appearance was a surprise a short lived one.
The performance from Novak lacked conviction early on. He was hitting the backhand wide, slow moving around the court and looked fatigued however surely conversations were had whether travelling to Barcelona was wise?
I didn’t think the decision at the time was a good one and should have taken a leaf out of Nadal’s book. Nadal could have easily turned up at Miami to play but pulled out, few days later he’s on the clay practicing which he did for three weeks!
Novak does have an option to go to Estoril next week and pick up a wildcard there I don’t think he should go near it and should head off to Madrid for the Masters 1000 which begins in just under two weeks and get practice in. Novak had a good turnover from Monte Carlo defeat to today but look off the mark.
Novak said in Monte Carlo the other day that he was playing for the first time in two years ‘pain free’ and I thought wow what a statement and today I thought more about that statement especially watching him serve yes he may be pain free but is being effective? The answer is no.
Image Credit – Sky Sports
This second serve sums it up, Klizan wasn’t afraid to go for it as players use to be. 115mph on the serve is good but it was lacking any conviction it was fatigued.
At this stage of the season Novak is at 5/5 for win/loss and there doesn’t seem from an outsider to be a plan it’s very much make up as we go along at the moment.
Credit to Martin Klizan, he didn’t get fazed despite dropping the second set 6-1 he continued what he did so well in the first set hitting winners and was all over Novak’s second serve with the Serb winning 0% behind it in set one.
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