Djokovic wins battle with his ‘other me’ to beat Sandgren

Associated PressAug 31, 2018, 1:49 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) Novak Djokovic had become rattled by Tennys Sandgren and a boisterous Arthur Ashe Stadium that knocked him off his game.

But his most troublesome antagonist at the U.S. Open came from within.

“The other me,” Djokovic said with a smile, “that my first me doesn’t like.”

The alternate version of himself that Djokovic detests – when his mind, more than his skill, becomes the problem – surfaced in a puzzling third set when the 31-year-old Serb was only one point from victory but couldn’t close the deal.

“You just have to accept it sometimes,” Djokovic said. “But that’s being a human being, I guess. Not human doing.”

Whatever it was, Djokovic straightened himself and kept on a path toward a third U.S. Open championship .

Djokovic wasted a match point in the third set, before going on to win 6-1, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-2 against Sandgren on Thursday night at the U.S. Open to reach the third round.

Djokovic had a much easier victory over Sandgren, an American ranked 61st, in Wimbledon’s first round this year, dropping only six games in all.

The 13-time major champion seemed to be along the same path at Flushing Meadows, standing one point from victory while leading 5-4 in the third set as Sandgren served at 30-40. But Sandgren ended an 11-stroke exchange with a forehand winner, then took the tiebreaker .

Sandgren, who made a surprising run to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, noticed Djokovic’s dip in the third.

“It’s tough to stay really focused and clean for three full sets. It’s just difficult to do,” Sandgren said. “If anybody can do it, he can. But he definitely blinked there for a moment.”

Djokovic, the 2011 and 2015 champion, regained the upper hand with an early break in the fourth and was on his way.

But it wasn’t a fan-friendly victory.

Djokovic whined at Wimbledon when he was booed at times on Centre Court and he complained again at the U.S. Open about fans who turned the night session into a bit of a party.

He got on the fans during his post-match interview on the court for talking during points and said he lost his concentration.

“You can’t expect that 23,000 people are quiet,” he said. “That’s the beauty of night session U.S. Open. Everybody knows that. Wimbledon is all white, it’s tradition. You can’t hear a sound when you play a point. Here it’s different. That’s why these majors are unique in their own way.”

He has reunited with coach Marian Vajda – they briefly parted ways and Djokovic had a brief dalliance with Andre Agassi – to marked improvement. Djokovic knocked off Roger Federer in August to win a title in Cincinnati and a renewed focus with Vajda has been a key factor.

“When he came back, obviously we had to analyze what has happened in the last 12 months that we were not together and try to understand the situation with my body, with my game,” Djokovic said.

Djokovic, who missed last year’s Open with a sore elbow, won his 13th Grand Slam title this year at Wimbledon.

To get 14, he’ll have to keep his “other me” under wraps.

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More AP tennis coverage: https://www.apnews.com/tag/apf-Tennis

Iga Swiatek out of Miami Open with rib injury

Associated PressMar 22, 2023, 12:29 PM EDT

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Defending champion Iga Swiatek withdrew from the Miami Open because of a rib injury that she is hoping will heal during a break from competition.

The No. 1-ranked Swiatek, a 21-year-old from Poland, also will sit out her country’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier matches against Kazakhstan on April 13-14.

“I wanted to wait ’til the last minute” to decide whether to play in Miami,” Swiatek said at a news conference at the site of the hard-court tournament. “We were kind of checking if this is the kind of injury you can still play with or this is kind when you can get things worse. So I think the smart move for me is to pull out of this tournament because I want to rest and take care of it properly.”

She was supposed to face Claire Liu in the second round.

As a seeded player, three-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek received a first-round bye at an event she won a year ago during a 37-match unbeaten run that was the longest in women’s tennis in a quarter of a century.

“I was also aware at the beginning of the season that it’s going to be hard for me to defend all these (ranking) points,” she said, “because … these streaks, winning all these tournaments – looking logically and statistically, it’s not like it’s going to happen every year.”

Swiatek said after a 6-2, 6-2 loss to eventual champion Elena Rybakina in the BNP Paribas Open semifinals that her rib was bothering her. She explained in Miami that the problem first surfaced late in her quarterfinal victory against Sorana Cirstea a day earlier in California.

“Basically, it’s not like it happened in one minute or one second. It’s not, like, a serious thing, because we caught it … pretty early. So I felt like it was a process,” Swiatek said. “At first with these minor things, your body doesn’t feel anything.”

She said the issue was a problem “in certain movements,” including a “little bit when I served,” but Swiatek also said she’s not too worried about how long she will be sidelined.

The next Grand Slam tournament is the French Open, which Swiatek won last year for the second time. Play begins in Paris on May 28.

Instead of playing Swiatek, Liu will go up against 94th-ranked Julia Grabher, who lost in qualifying but now gets to move into the draw.

Liu advanced Tuesday when her first-round opponent, Katerina Siniakova, stopped playing in the second set because of a hurt wrist. Siniakova also pulled out of the doubles event with Barbora Krejcikova; the Czech duo has won the past four Grand Slam tournaments they’ve entered together, and seven major doubles titles overall.

Giorgi hits 14 double-faults at Miami Open, hangs on to win

Associated PressMar 21, 2023, 11:38 PM EDT

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Camila Giorgi hit 14 double-faults, blew a 5-0 lead in the final set and needed four match points before finally pulling out a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) victory against Kaia Kanepi in the first round of the Miami Open.

The match lasted 3 hours, 32 minutes, tying for the longest on the WTA Tour this season. The players combined for 30 aces – 19 by Kanepi, who also had seven double-faults.

In the third set, Kanepi was not moving well, and Giorgi raced to a big edge. But after dropping just two of her initial 15 service games, the Italian got broken twice in a row while serving for the victory at 5-1 and 5-3 in the third set.

Kanepi saved one match point at 5-3, another at 5-4 and another in the concluding tiebreaker. Giorgi finally ended things on her next chance with a cross-court forehand winner. She’ll next face 14th-seeded Victoria Azarenka, a three-time champion in Miami and two-time winner at the Australian Open.

All seeded players at the hard-court tournament received first-round byes. Women’s matches in the main draw began Tuesday; the men start Wednesday.

It was a rough afternoon for the Czech teenage sisters Brenda and Linda Fruhvirtova. First Brenda, who turns 16 on April 2, lost the initial nine games of a 6-0, 7-5 loss to Wang Xiyu. And then Linda, 17, exited with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 loss against qualifier Katherine Sebov, who now meets No. 3 Jessica Pegula.

In other action, Rebecca Marino eliminated Yulia Putintseva 7-6 (4), 6-2 to set up a second-round match against 2022 French Open runner-up Coco Gauff; Irina-Camelia Begu trailed 2-0 in the first set and then 5-1 in the second before coming back in both to beat wild-card entry Alexandra Eala 6-2, 7-5; and Marta Kostyuk was a 6-3, 6-2 winner against Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

Claire Liu, an American who is ranked 59th, advanced to a second-round meeting against defending champion and No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek when Katerina Siniakova stopped playing in the second set Tuesday because of an injured wrist.