Del Potro was the victor that time around so not only will the Serbian be bidding for revenge, but an Olympic singles gold medal is one of the few things that Djokovic can not lay claim to in his glittering career. But Novak Djokovic wasn’t expected to lose on the first round against an injury-ravaged Juan Martin del Potro.
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Novak Djokovic had high hopes that he would win an Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro this year, but his hopes were completed dashed on Sunday. “But you’ve got to deal with it”.
The top-seeded Djokovic has always admired winning a Gold Medal at the quadrennial event, but the 12-time Grand Slam victor admitted he has to be “very cautious” after falling short two in the top prize in the last two Olympic Games. “But the Olympic Games, yeah, it’s completely different”, he told reporters.
The world No.145, whose career has been dogged by injury since he won the US Open in 2009, was eventually rescued by the Argentinian handball team, later going on to defeat Djokovic in an epic battle 7-6, 7-6. “At decisive moments he came up with some extraordinary tennis and I just have to congratulate him”, Djokovic said. But against Del Potro, who defeated the Serb for the Bronze in London four years ago, Djokovic has no room for any errors.
Del Potro is set to face Portugal’s Joao Sousa in the second round.
Del Potro, ecstatic with the victory, sympathised with Djokovic.
The world number one said: “It was a really tough match for us, a really tough draw, but we’re used to tough draws”.
A top seed hasn’t won an Olympic gold medal since Andre Agassi in Atlanta in 1996. The feat entails winning each of the four Grand Slam tournaments (January’s Australian Open, May’s French Open, June’s Wimbledon Championships and August’s US Open) at least once, though not necessarily in a given year.
The pair were dumped out by Czech pair Barbora Strycova and Lucie Safarova in straight sets.
“The Olympics in London was very strong and it’s a little bit weaker this time around but everyone views things differently”, Murray said via EuroSport.
Serena agreed: “We played awful and that basically showed in the results”.
And Del Potro certainly delivered as he claimed only his fourth win in 15 meetings against his illustrious opponent – although even he thought victory would be beyond him.
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Both Serena Williams and Andy Murray made it safely through their first-round singles matches, against Daria Gavrilova and Viktor Troicki respectively, while there were also wins for Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Garbine Muguruza.
