Novak Djokovic will be back in action when he takes the court in Monte-Carlo for a second-round date with Gilles Simon on Tuesday. David Goffin and Nicolas Almagro picked up wins earlier in the week and will now face each other in the last 32.
Gilles Simon vs. (2) Novak Djokovic
Djokovic is set for his first ATP tournament match since losing in the Indian Wells fourth round to Nick Kyrgios. The second-ranked Serb missed Miami because of an elbow injury before winning one Davis Cup rubber for his country in a victory over Spain (he took care of Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 on an indoor hard court). Djokovic kicked off his season with a title in Doha, but things have gone downhill ever since. This week’s No. 2 seed is 12-3 (6-3 in his last nine matches) with losses to Denis Istomin (Australian Open second round) and Kyrgios twice (also in Acapulco).
Up first for Djokovic at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Tuesday is a 12th career showdown against Simon, who is an almost-hopeless 1-10 in the head-to-head series. The Frenchman’s lone win came via a 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3 decision indoors in Marseille and he has now lost 10 in a row to his heavily favored opponent. They most recently faced each other in an infamous 2016 Aussie Open affair, won by Djokovic 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 despite the fact that he made 100 unforced errors. Simon is a modest 7-6 this year but did well to destroy Malek Jaziri 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday. Although Djokovic is an obvious question mark heading into Monte-Carlo, his Davis Cup performance was relatively encouraging and he should be able to handle an opponent who is not at his best on clay.
Pick: Djokovic in 2 losing more than 8 games
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Nicolas Almagro vs. (10) David Goffin
Goffin and Almagro will be squaring off for the fifth time in their careers on Tuesday. Almagro leads the head-to-head series 3-1, but it is tied up 1-1 on clay and Goffin took their most recent encounter 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 at last season’s French Open. Almagro prevailed once in 2012 (Miami) and twice in 2013 (Miami and Monte-Carlo, the latter by a 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 scoreline). Now 31 years old, the Spaniard has slowed down just a bit and registers at 57th in the rankings. He is just 3-4 in 2017 and suffered a disappointing first-round loss in Marrakech to Radu Albot, but he beat Martin Klizan 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 on Monday.
After earning an alternate spot at the 2016 World Tour Finals (played one match in place of Gael Monfils), Goffin apparently has designs of making a return trip to London. The 13th-ranked Belgian is eighth in the race with a 20-7 record that includes a quarterfinal showing at the Australian Open and a runner-up performance in Rotterdam. Goffin maintained his fine form on Sunday in Monte-Carlo with a 6-2, 6-1 blowout of Davis Cup teammate Steve Darcis. At this point in their respective careers, Goffin should have the upper hand and it should be easier than it was last spring at Roland Garros.
Pick: Goffin in 2
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Djokovic in 3. Almagro to take at least one set.
generous to both Simon and Almagro
Yeah, I am like that sometimes 😉
Funny how Eugene, Kavita, Joey Smith and Kevin all tend to come and go at the same time, no?
Just sayin.
Well, people have very different perceptions about most things. What’s funny for you might be boring or normal for someone else. I do like a bit of irony used in the right context, but your irony cannot be called anymore like that, since it’s overexposed.
I find it funnier when you hawkeye don’t get understood even by Rafans, because your intellectual level is high above ours, and then you are the only one who can challenge yourself.
I’m sure it must be boring Eugene but that’s ok because I’m just here for my own entertainment.
I’m hilarious!!!
Still it is a big coincidence.
I don’t know about the other coincidences but Kavita is here to promote her blog. As no one seems to interact with her, she has now decided to disagree with herslf which makes Kavita doubly disagreeable!
Kavita vs Kavita.
“Your [Hawkeye’s] intellectual level is far above ours.”
Hahahahahahahahaha.
Don’t sell yourself short, Eugene. Though Hawk gets fairly high marks for humour. Sometimes he even manages to be hilarious.
Nole losing eight games or less FTW.
So, Simon manages to get a set, we are going into the third set now.
Not even surprised at this point. Simon will probably find a way to win this.
Don’t think so, Simon fond of losing from winning positions, this won’t be the first time and not the last.
See, I’ve seen this story how many thousand times! Once they’re serving for the match, they failed to do so! Berdych is like that, Simon is another one like that! No wonder they can’t beat the top guys, it’s not only the top guys won’t want to believe it, these guys themselves simply don’t believe they can do it!
Exactly LS, all mental.
It’s what separates the men from the boys.
That’s sport, but especially individual sport.
Simon, what a loser!!
I KNEW this would be a tough one. Was Simon serving for the set Lucky?? Damn!
He was serving for the match at 5-4 after breaking Djoko in set three but failed to serve it out, so Djoko broke back for 5-5. What a gutless display by Simon when serving for the match! Djoko was there for the taking, playing poorly by his standard yet Simon failed to take advantage!
This reminds me of that Berdych vs Fed match at Miami; Berdych was even worse than this Simon, when he had MP but failed to convert. These players simply have no self belief even when the chances are right there for them to win the match! No wonder the big four can stay up there for so long, when we have a bunch of such low confidence, no self belief players out there for them to beat and many times to toy with!
Frankly, I just can’t stand matches like this, when players literally throw away the wins when they work so hard to be in such winning positions.
Not unlike Rafa up a break in the fifth at the 2012 AO final vs Nole and at the 2017 AO final vs Fed.
Not enough belief in those moments compared to the opponent.
That’s why I love tennis. It discloses so much information about an individual’s mental & emotional configuration; not only his technical abilities necessary to play that sport.
But think about this, lots of matches were won by big 4 just using their emotional/mental abilities. At times, their level of play is same as their opponents’. This is complexity and the beauty of tennis. Lucky, just be cool about it. Not every animal can be a lion and this is normal.
And speaking of confidence… a lot of you guys claim that Fed’s backhand is so much better and that’s the main reason he won against Nadal 3 times this year + Nadal not being at is best. This is only partially true. Federer always HAD it. He just couldn’t use it as effectively because of his mental weakness against Rafa. I assume with age he managed to deal with this issue (although he could have done more then, maybe by seeing a therapist), and I also believe Ljubicic helped him a lot in that matter. His backhand is refreshed and more confident than ever. But the core is the same. He had to raise his emotional ability to match his skills.
I don’t think that’s necessarily the case Eugene.
Possible but I’d only believe it if Nadal was playing at 95% of his best.
His 80% level has been good enough against the rest this year (except for Querrey).
But the Querrey loss was evidence that Rafa’s consistency is still lacking and Fed just gonna jump all over that.
But you have your narrative and I have mine.
But I agree with you about the mental side of the sport. All players admit that’s the biggest part of the game.
I see what you’re saying hawkeye. And I agree that Rafa is not 95%. He’s at best 80% as you said. At least on HC this year. I am not saying that Federer would have beaten Rafa every time, should his confidence been high back then. But his rate would have been higher by about 20%. My subjective perception.
I wouldn’t disagree with that assessment at all.
He’s as good (I’d say better) than he’s ever been when he plays.
And VR, frankly speaking, I was fed up with Rafa during 2015 and 2016, when he kept throwing away winnable matches – USO2016 against Pouille (yes I know he had his wrist issue at that time and so I can understand he didn’t play that well so had to go five sets but he managed to lose in the end from a winning position!); AO2016 vs Verdasco; and USO 2015 vs Foggy when he was leading two sets to nil (even though Rafa was clearly affected by the humidity but he wasn’t clutch enough to shorten points to win before tiredness set in).
I mean a champion like him was reduced to such a low confidence, nervy player and it took him and his team so long and yet couldn’t solve his problem! The AO match vs Verdasco in particular was simply atrocious, when he was playing well at Abu Dhabi and reached the final at Doha just before the AO. There’s no excuse for playing so poorly when he was leading two sets up, and he wasn’t even having any injury issues at that time, or dealing with humidity.
Hopefully I won’t see that Rafa appearing again!
Exactly LS.
Mental problemas.
Not age.
Age is gradual decline.
Rafa’s was sudden.
But he’s still on the right path albiet slow.
Novak was lucky because Simon choked and double faulted. This match with Simon shows that those days of utter domination are well behind Novak and makes me question if http://www.138mph.com/will-djokovic-ever-rise-again/
Doesn’t matter because Nole played at a higher level in 2011, 2012 and 2015.5-2016.5 than any version of Fed.
Boo hoo.
Replying to hawkeye, not Kavita. Doesn’t matter. Federer’s mark on tennis is much bolder than Novak’s. Why are you bothered so much about players’ peak level of play??? That’s not as important. It’s lile saying that you’d prefer a Bugati just because its maximum speed is higher than the max speed of the most comfortable, best looking, safest car for you and your family.
Oh, I completely agree about Fed’s mark in terms of accomplishments.
They are unmatched.
I’m not bothered. It’s been a point of discussion here lately brought up by someone else. Your claim suggests you might be though.
Also just a horrible straw man analogy IMO TBH.
That was distorted analogy, agree. Especially that I don’t like comparing players as if they are objects or machines. They are unique human beings.
Agreed. All with their own unique talents.
I love watching the Big 4 anytime they go up against each other (not so much Rafa when he’s not confident admittedly).
Looking forward to Kyrgios this year and hopefully Zverev improving (just not this week I hope).
Isn’t this nice? Kumbaya, anyone?
Yeah Joe Smith, I remember one of your earlier posts when you first arrived saying that you wanted to stir the pot.
Shouldn’t have been so obvious admitting that was your intent all along.
It was transparently obvious anyways (confirmed by your timing of showing up on TG).
Textbook fedfawn PTSD response.
Not interested in clicking on the link. Why don’t you participate intelligently in conversations here? At present you sound like a reject grade bot.
That’s an insult to reject grade bots.
Novak played terribly. He needs to take care of his elbow if it’s hurting because it is silly to play with a busted elbow. It really was a struggle against Simon http://www.138mph.com/its-a-struggle-for-djokovic/
^^^ WARNING: The above link may install malware on your PC.