Novak Djokovic is trying to get his injury-marred season on track in Miami, where he will begin his campaign against Benoit Paire on Friday. Andrey Rublev and Vasek Pospisil are also aiming for a place in the third round.
Benoit Paire vs. (9) Novak Djokovic
Djokovic has only fourth-round points to defend at the Miami Open, but his long layoff due to various injuries will have plummeting in the rankings if he does not get his act together in the near future. Down to No. 12 in the world, the 30-year-old Serb reached at least the quarterfinals in Monte-Carlo, Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon last season. Slowly making his way back from an elbow problem, Djokovic is just 3-2 for his abbreviated 2018 campaign with a fourth-round showing at the Australian Open (lost to Hyeon Chung in straight sets) and an immediate setback in Indian Wells against Taro Daniel (7-6(3), 4-6, 6-1).
Up first for the 12-time Grand Slam champion on Friday is a second career meeting with Paire, who succumbed to Djokovic 7-5, 6-2 at the 2015 Cincinnati Masters. The 47th-ranked Frenchman is a decent 9-6 so far this year, but he has cooled off following a 5-2 start and had no business winning on Wednesday–when he likely would have lost to anyone else in the draw except for an injury-plagued Mischa Zverev (Paire somehow prevailed 1-6, 6-1, 6-2). Anything close to that kind of quality will see the underdog make a quick exit against Djokovic, who appears to be healthier based on both his comments and his recent practices in Miami.
Pick: Djokovic in 2 losing 8 games or fewer
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(27) Andrey Rublev vs. Vasek Pospisil
Rublev and Pospisil will be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers on Friday. By Pospisil’s recent ATP-level standards, this has already been a successful tournament for him. The 27-year-old Canadian qualified for the Australian Open and for the Indian Wells Masters, but he had not won a main-draw match on the main tour in 2018 until beating Ivo Karlovic 7-6(4), 7-6(5) on Wednesday in Miami. Back in the top 80 for the first time since last August, Pospisil owns two Challenger titles this season plus a pair of semifinal performances.
Thanks to a solid ranking of No. 34 in the world in addition to multiple withdrawals ahead of him, Rublev earned a first-round bye as the 27th seed. The 20-year-old Russian won eight of his first 10 matches in 2018–including a runner-up finish in Doha–but has lost four of his last six and is in the midst of a three-match losing streak. Rublev is coming off opening losses to David Ferrer in Acapulco and to Taylor Fritz in Indian Wells. Still, this is a steep step up in competition from what Pospisil has been accustomed two over the last couple of months and he has suffered three recent losses to opponents outside the top 160.
Pick: Rublev in 2
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Djokovic and Rublev, both in 3, mainly because I wouldn’t bet on Paire or Pops to win anything. Otoh, D & R are not having great years thus far so maybe P & P can each get a set.
Paire and Pospisil in three
Rublev in 2 Djokovic in 2
Joker in straight…losing 4 games or less ( I might beat the Benoit Paire we saw play on Wed!!!)…and Pops in 3.
Joker to beat Paire??? The way Joker has been playing i think that is a stretch!
Wow. I don’t care if Novak only had one arm- I STILL would expect him to beat Benoit freakin’ Paire! I can’t believe he not only lost to Benoit, but got SMOKED. I just feel bad for Novak at this point. I know he’s just trying to get back into the flow of things, but my god… Never did I imagine a day would come where through the March Masters Novak would only win, what, 3 matches? And back-to-back first match losses at both IW and Miami, tournaments where he completely dominated for much of the previous 7 years? It’s just crazy for me to think about. I remember thinking after AO 2016 that the only thing that would stop the guy from winning 3 majors per year for the next 5 years or so was a freak injury of some kind. And I honestly thought he would NEVER get seriously injured because the guy has been the most durable, athletic, elastic player we’ve ever seen, and post-2010 he pretty much never got hurt. That’s why this whole turn of events for Novak over the last couple years is so shocking to me. There was seriously nothing standing in this guy’s way except for serious injury, and that one thing is precisely what happened. I hope this isn’t the case, but I worry that Novak could end up being arguably the most tragic case of an athlete’s downfall of all-time… I honestly hope I’m wrong because the guy is special, and that’s a fact. If he retired tomorrow and never played another match, to
me he is unquestionably on the men’s tennis Mount Rushmore with Fedal, Sampras, and Laver. That’s how special Novak was. I would hate to see his career end up having to be finished because he was just never able to be competitive again….
More to it than meets the eye.
A lot of players playing not playing.
Rafa, Murray, Wawrinka, Dimitrov, Kyrgios, Raonic, Goffin, Zverev yada yada yada.
#TheTruthIsOutThere
#SilentProtest
#Work2Rule
Djoker served to tie the 2nd set at 5 all and got broken at love!?! By Paire? And he really didn’t seem to care. Nole’s service motion looked a bit strange to me, like he’s trying to serve without moving his elbow.
He’s been saying the right things – he misses the competition, his arm feels better, yada, yada, but he just does not seem to have any competitive fire. Like he’s going through the motions. Maybe to keep his sponsorships awhile longer? Sad to see.
Been saying it for over a year now.
Nole is suffering from mental burnout. No respect from fans to the point of being booed by fedfans and errors cheered similar to Delpo vs Federer.
Lendl was similarly disrespected but was a master of tuning it out on the court. It’s Nole’s Achilles heel.
Honestly, i’m not surprised at all by this result…Coming back from injury is never easy..We Rafans experienced this plenty of time already..
I think there’s so much issues still going on in Novak’s case…not only his injury…Mental,physical too…This is the 1st time in his professional career that he suffered a very serious injury…He never have any injury at all in his entire life…So,to deal with it after came back from serious injury is very hard for him..We heard many times Rafa talked about how hard to deal with everything after the comeback…how to trust their injured anatomy back..there’s so many things to adapt on court..”If i use this shot,can’t it hurt my anatomy”?”How hard i have to hit this serve so my anatomy would not suffer a setback or will feel less pain”?…God!There’s sooo many things to think out there but so less time to have coz you’re in a very high level competition…Your opponent won’t allowed u to have that luxury…
And when u suffered a loss like AO..and then to Taro Daniel and then this..it will seeped your confidence even more..i actually expect this long before he came back..he will struggle at first coz he has no experience in dealing with all the things that related to a major injury,before & after…But i’m pretty sure,once he get used to it..he will come back..and insyaallah winning titles again…All he needs is patience & time..
One more thing..he needs to get rid of Vegan diet & start taking meat & stuff that will make his physic stronger again..Add more weight…i’m very concerned,he’s so skinny..and possibly can effect his recovery too…
I totally subscribe your words Mira,I feel like he came back way to early after the surgery. However,from his post match press conference,something’s really not well,it’s like he lost the will/desire to keep fighting on court,he’s completely empty mentally and that’s extremely sad. I hope that he can reagroup and get back to the best possible form,the game needs him back.
Yeah Gavi…Not only he came back before it’s time…but like i said in my post up there Gavi…there’s so many things that he have to deal with……it’s just collide with his elbow injury…and collide with personal issues as well..but,we only see the obvious,the injury..while the ‘bad mammoth’ is still there in his head.. lurking somewhere,teasing his mind about something that lead to his downfall…all this need to be address…Just hope Agassi & Stepanek know how to tackle this unseen issues…It’s hard to see a great champion like Novak suffered like this…Like u said Gavi…the game still needs him…
This shows how hard it is to pick winners in competitive sport. *No one* would seriously pick Novak to lose so badly to Paire… but he did.
I don’t know what’s wrong with Djokovic. He says he’s not in pain, but he’s obviously not in form or anywhere close to it. Whether he can get it back is an open question at this point.
Paire won in two. Easy pick.
You picked Paire in two, Benny??
Correction: picking the winner of the match was easy 😂
Pospisil wins too. On a roll. I gotta get the daily picks going again. Was busy last couple days so couldn’t get em then.
Unfortunately this is not really a surprising result. I hope Novak can get back to his best, he’s still got time … but I’m certainly not confident that he ever will.
Djoker will not be losing any points because he skipped Miami last year.