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Andrey Rublev of Russia, right, poses with Novak Djokovic of Serbia after the final of Serbia Open(AP) |
Second seed Rublev won through 6-2, 6-7 (4/7), 6-0 against
the top seed who had been looking to regain winning form before his French Open
title defence next month.
The Belgrade event was only Djokovic’s third of 2022 after
he was deported from Melbourne – and denied the chance to defend his Australian
Open title – after entering the country unvaccinated.
However, the 20-time Grand Slam winner was let down by his
lack of physical form.
The 34-year-old, who lost in the quarter-finals in Dubai and
suffered a shock second-round defeat in Monte Carlo, battled past Laslo Djere,
Miomir Kecmanovic and Karen Khachanov in three sets before the court time
caught up with the top seed against Rublev.
Djokovic got off to a bad start, dropping serve twice, to
lose the first set after have an hour.
Bouyed by the support of the 8,000 crowd, Djokovic fought
back in a marathon second set which lasted just over an hour, levelling in the
tie-break despite wasting six set points, before running out of steam in the
third.
Rublev captured his third title of the season, days after
blasting Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players as “complete
discrimination”.
Wimbledon banned all Russian and Belarusian players from
this summer’s Grand Slam tournament due to the invasion of Ukraine.
It was a decision condemned by the ATP and WTA as well as a
host of players including world number one Novak Djokovic who described the
sanction as “crazy”.
Rublev has now equalled Spaniard Rafael Nadal for the most
tour-level titles in 2022, having also clinched crowns in Marseille and Dubai
in February.
AFP