Indian Wells: Lucky loser qualifier Luca Nardi scored the biggest win of his young career on Monday, stunning world number one Novak Djokovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 at the ATP-WTA Indian Wells Masters. The world number 123 from Italy ended the veteran Serb’s 11-match winning streak at Masters events as Nardi improved on the childhood tennis idol who had a poster hanging above his bed since he was eight.
The 20-year-old was unfazed by Djokovic’s big game and put Djokovic up 4-2 in the deciding set before sealing victory three games later with a sword ace. The Italian finished with 36 winners and 41 unforced errors, while Djokovic had 31 errors in less than two and a half hours.
“Before this night, nobody knew me,” Nardi said in an interview in court after his win. “I hope the audience liked the play; I’m very happy with the play.” Asked how he achieved the biggest win of his career, Nardi said: “I don’t know. I think it’s a miracle. I’m a guy ranked outside the top 100 in the world and now I’m beating.”
Novak – crazy, crazy.” After withdrawing, Nardi made it to the main draw at Indian Wells. He was defeated by the Belgian David Goffin in the last round of qualification. Djokovic, meanwhile, blamed his defeat on a bad day at the office. “He went into the main draw as a lucky loser, so he really had nothing to lose,” Djokovic said of Nardi.
“He deserved to win. I was more surprised by my level. My level was really, really bad. That’s it, those two things combined – he’s having a great day; I’m having a really bad day.” In other matches on Monday, seventh seed Holger Rune finally made his way onto the court after a first-round bye and a second-round bye against the injured Milos Raonic.
The 20-year-old Dane was off and running into action after defeating Italian Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 7-6 (7/5). Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev had to fight to get past Sebastian Korda 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, winning in a bizarre match featuring 31 break points – 15 converted. The winner was limited to just 14 winners and Korda was saddled with more than 60 unforced errors. Medvedev then plays Grigor Dimitrov. Norwegian ninth seed Casper Ruud advanced past Arthur Fils of France 6-2, 6-4.
