Miami: Six-time champion Novak Djokovic “ran out of gas” in a 6-3, 6-4 loss to Benoit Paire on Friday in his ATP Miami Masters opener.
It was another setback for the Serbian star as he bids to return from the elbow injury that sidelined him for six months and finally saw him have “minor” surgical intervention after a disappointing Australian Open.
“I’m trying, but it’s not working,” Djokovic said. “That’s all it is. I mean, obviously I’m not feeling great when I’m playing this way. Of course, I want to be able to play as well as I want to play. Just, it’s impossible at the moment. That’s all.”
Paire broke Djokovic at love to seal the win, Djokovic dumping a backhand into the net on the Frenchman’s first match point.
Paire broke Djokovic in the seventh game of the opening set — part of a run of five straight games that saw him take a 6-3, 1-0 lead.
“I felt I started the match well, first six games,” Djokovic said. “Then I just ran out of gas. He was serving well. I just wasn’t able to break him down. He was just coming up with the good shots at the right time. It happened very fast.”
Djokovic, the former world number one now ranked 12th in the world, dug deep to escape a 0-40 hole and hold serve in the second game of the second set before Paire broke him for a 4-2 lead.
Djokovic responded with his first break of the match to put the set back on serve, but simply had no answer in the final game.
Djokovic had also lost his opening match at the Indian Wells Masters last week. But he was encouraged in Miami this week to find himself playing without pain for the first time “in years”.
He said a lack of match fitness was “one of the things” preventing him from gaining any steam in his bid to return to his top form.
World No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki and rising star Naomi Osaka became early round casualties while veteran Venus Williams survived a scare to book her third round spot at the Miami WTA Open.
Wozniacki slumped to a shock 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico while Osaka’s bid for the “Sunshine Double” of Indian Wells and Miami Open titles ended with a 6-4, 6-2 loss to fourth seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina.
The 24-year-old Puig compared her win over reigning Australian Open champion Wozniacki to her gold medal triumph at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“It felt like Rio all over again,” Puig said. “I have been waiting for this and to finally start finding myself again.”
The 27-year-old Wozniacki appeared to be headed to an easy victory after winning the first set in less than 30 minutes before the wheels fell off.
World number 82 Puig clinched the win with a blistering forehand winner on the second match point.
“I just tried to stay positive,” she said. “I didn’t think I played that poorly in the first set. She’s a great player so I had to stay focused and keep fighting.”
