Novak Djokovic

[sonya]

Novak Djokovic to face Jarkko Nieminen in Cincinnati Round 1


Novak Djokovic's two week's staying in the capital of Serbia has been finished. Best Serbian tennis player has arrived Cincinnati on Thursday night where he will play at the Masters tournament "Western & Southern Financial Group Masters" that starts on Monday, 14th August (hard courts, 2.200.000 $).

Novak has been handed a very tough draw at the beginning of this event. In his first round match Djokovic faces world number 15 Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, who is the number 12 seed. The former number 13 in the world, Nieminen won a title in Auckland on the start of season 2006, was semifinalist in Bastad, Munich and Rotterdam, and quarterfinalist in Adelaide, Indian Wells, Barcelona and Wimbledon.

Provided Djokovic can overcome the player from Finland, whom he has never faced, Julien Bennetau (France) is a likely second round rival.

[tina]

what else to say that GO NOLE!!!!!!

[varia]

Novak Djokovic defeated Jarkko Nieminen 7-6 6-4

[sonya]

US Open 2006 Draw Released


Following the ceremony, held at 17.00 CET on Wednesday, 25 August in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium, in the United Nations in New York, the main singles draw for the upcoming United States Open Tennis Tournament was published.

Young Serbian Novak Djokovic, No. 20 seed, will face Donald Young of United States of America in the first round of competition at Flushing Meadows.

Young, who turned pro in 2004, is currently No. 577 in the INDESIT ATP ranking. Interestingly enough, Donald Young is two years younger than Serbia's tennis star Novak Djokovic, but apparently is dedicated to the same goal as Novak. According to www.juniortennis.com, Young's ambition is "to win all the slams more than once and become the number one player in the world". Young is coached by his father, Donald Sr. and is considered one of the prospects of American tennis. He plays left-handed.

Should he overcome the first obstacle, Nole could face another American, Mardy Fish (60) in the second round at Flushing Meadows. Fish, holder of the 2006 Houston title (his second career title, maiden title Stockholm 2003), is set to face Simon Greul of Germany in his first match at US Open.

Simon Greul, still a virgin in terms of ATP events titles, is currently No. 77 in the INDESIT ATP ranking. Greul has won in their first and only encounter so far, in February this year at Delray Beach, USA, which might indicate that Mardy Fish is looking for revenge.

In the third round, Novak could face his first real challenge, embodied in the No. 15 seed, Lleyton Hewit of Australia. Hewitt, who has lately been struggling with an injury, described as soreness in his right knee, has dropped from No. 11 to No. 17 on the INDESIT ATP Ranking, as a result of skipping the Cincinnati Masters Event. He has also skipped the USO warm up, played this week in New Haven. According to his official web page, he was instructed to rest and restrain from practicing. Apparently, he experiences pain while walking but is decisive in his intention to compete at Flushing Meadows.

US Open 2006 is Novak's second appearance at the final Grand Slam of the year. Bearing in mind that in 2005 he reached the third round, he will have to defend 75 points. This could be describes as an easy task, knowing that this year Novak secured the No. 20 seed, thus playing his first Grand Slam event as a seed. Novak has had a stellar year so far, winning maiden title in Amersfoort, which was followed by the final in Umag tournament, where he retired to Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka. Novak is currently No. 23 in the INDESIT ATP Ranking, which is his career high. He is expected to be in good shape and is certainly looking to improve his USO record.

Good luck Nole!

Written by Marija Novkovic

[sonya]

Nole wins his opening match at US Open


Novak Djokovic, 20th seeded at the US Open was the first through to the second round on the men's side of the last Grand Slam in 2006. He dropped the first set but won the next three for a 4:6, 6:3, 6:0, 6:1 defeat of Donald Young of the United States in roughly 103 minutes.

In the first set 17-year-old made a break in the third game and saved this advantage till the end to take opening set 6:4.

Yet as the match continued, it became clear that Young would need to step up his game if he wanted to fend off the agile Djokovic. The Serbian proved expert at chasing down each ball for an impressive return, and quickly took a 3:0 lead to begin the second set. While Djokovic's accuracy increased, Young seemed to stumble into more errors. The young American wore his frustration on his sleeve and blew a break chance that could have evened the score in the second set.

Djokovic breezed through the third set 6:0. With Young playing as if he were already defeated, all Djokovic had to do was maintain the exceptional level of play he had brought onto the court since the match began. It was Young's match to lose.

Despite the heavy crowd support, Young couldn't shake the frustrations that followed him from his early mistakes, and managed just one game in the speedy fourth set.

"I need to extract an edification from this match and forget some details. The most important for me is to stay positive, because this is a Grand Slam and I can't cogitate about negative things. I'm in the second round now, and I think about my next opponent," said Novak Djokovic.

Is the problem in insufficient practice before the match, maybe?

"It is one of the reasons, maybe. I did practice in the morning. I had been ready to play at 11.00 a.m. but they postponed the match. It was raining and I decided to eat something. The rain stopped and they told me that I would play in 30 minutes. That's my lesson for the next time. Similar mistakes I must not make, who knows what would have happened if I had played against much better rival."

Djokovich now moves on to a second round match-up with American Mardy Fish, who defeated German Simon Greul 6:4, 6:4, 1:6, 6:3. Djokovic and 24-year-old Yankee has never played before. Fish (60) is holder of the 2006 Houston title (his second career title, maiden title Stockholm 2003).

"I knew Djokovic returns real well, especially off the backhand wing. I never played Djokovic before. He's got a lot of firepower. I'm sure we'll kind of feel each other out. I haven't seen him play much either. I'm sure he hasn't seen me play much as well. I'm sure we'll feel each other out in the beginning but. That's a long ways away," said Mardy Fish about Novak after his first round match.

This match will be playing on Wednesday. should have been played today

[sonya]

First round of doubles and second round of singles on THURSDAY


Novak Djokovic today will not appear on courts of the tennis complex at Flushing Meadows. It was raining all day yesterday in New York, which completely disrupted the schedule of play; thus all matches scheduled for yesterday will either resume or start today. Nole is expected to play his first round doubles match tomorrow, rather than today as was previously planned (it will be played after the second round of singles, more below). The Swedes Thomas Johansson and Robert Lindstedt are the first rivals of our player and Yeu-Tzuoo Wang of Taipei (No. 109 in singles, No. 308 in doubles) in tomorrow's encounter. Each and every genuine tennis admirer was intrigued by the combination of our tennis player and the citizen of Taipei. We got the response from Nole.

"Wang is coached by Dejan Petrovic who used to coach me, that's how we agreed to play together although I didn't plan to enter the doubles at US Open, because I wanted to feel fresh for the singles. Ultimately, I decided to play, one doubles match will do me good in terms of training."

Additionally, ATP's No. 23 will challenge yet another home player on Thursday, in the second round of singles at US Open. Looking for a place in the third round, Nole will face world No. 60, Mardy Fish, who outplayed Simon Greul of Germany yesterday (making the total of 18 aces in the match). This will be their first encounter in their career.

"Fish is a very tough opponent. He likes to be aggressive and to control the match. He was injured for a while, last year he had two operations on the wrist of his left arm. But he made a comeback this year and has already reached No. 60 in the ATP rankings. He had some significant results lately and is currently in good shape."

Knowing that you are the type of player who likes to have the match well under control as well, what kind of a contest do you expect?

"That's exactly the reason why I anticipate a rather interesting match. The start will be exciting, because we will both try to impose our own game."

What will be your best weapon in the match-up against yet another home player?

"Fish will have the big audience behind him, which means a lot. In situations like this, it's vital to be psychologically stable and strong. I'll try to keep him on the baseline as long as possible, because he often comes up to the net and uses every chance he gets to shorten the point. He was injured and he doesn't feel comfortable in longer matches, hence I'll try to go for the longer points."

What's your opinion on introducing instant replays to tennis? What's your experience so far with the "challenge"?

"I was the FIRST to experience instant replay! Literally, the first! At Hopman Cup, I played the first match against Dent, right after New Year's, which was in fact the first match and tournament to test the challenge."

[sonya]

Novak Djokovic end his run at this year's US Open


Heavy rain that washed out the entire Day 6 of this year's US Open, decided to stop and allow the players to appear on courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

On Sunday, September 3, Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Montenegro, No. 20 seed, walked onto the Grandstand to face Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, No. 15 seed, in the much awaited third round clash, which turned out not be one in the end.

US Open 2004 champion and the up-and-coming Serbian teen star have never met before; this was their first encounter which Novak, unfortunately, lost in straight sets 3:6, 1:6, 2:6. Hewitt didn't waste any time on the court; the match lasted only ninety minutes and Novak's 46 unforced errors (compared to Hewitt's 15) largely contributed to this quick and painful defeat.

After failing to convert two break points and losing the first set, it was expected that Novak would elevate his game in the second set. However, mush to his disappointment, and the disappointment of his fans; he couldn't even capitalize on the low first serve percentage of Lleyton Hewitt in this stage (mere 35%). Hewitt wrapped up the second set even more comfortably, letting Nole win just one game.

The same rhythm continued in the third and final set, which was over in 31 minutes, in which Nole managed to win just two games.

Despite this defeat, Novak defended the 75 points earned in last year's appearance and is looking for a new career high in the Indesit ATP rankings. He is expected to approach the top 20 in the world.

Next up for Novak is the Davis Cup World Group Play Offs, to be played in Geneva, Switzerland, on September 22-24.

Author: Marija Novkovic

[tina]

i m so sad that he lost but hell be ok i think in future

[sonya]

Djokovic beats Melzer in Metz for second ATP title!



Serbian Novak Djokovic clinched the second ATP title of his career when he defeated Austrian Juergen Melzer 4:6, 6:3, 6:2 in the Open de Moselle final on Sunday.

Third-seeded Djokovic got off to a poor start, allowing the in-form Melzer, a winner in Bucharest three weeks ago, to break once to wrap up the first set.

However, Djokovic, who won the Amersfoort tournament earlier this year and reached the French Open quarter-finals, reacted strongly in the second set, converting two of his seven break points.

Melzer, world ranked 48th, then ran out of steam after playing in the doubles semi-finals on Saturday evening.

The Austrian, who beat former world number one Marat Safin in the second round, bowed out after one hour and 51 minutes.

"As I'm only 19, it's a great achievement," Novak said.

"But my goal is to become world number one even if I know that with players such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal it will be difficult."

Owing to his fantastic triumph in Metz Novak will be world number 16 from tomorrow with new 175 points on Monday's ATP singles rankings.

[sonya]

Novak Djokovic is THE WORLD NUMBER 16 on newest ATP list!





Novak Djokovic moved up six places in the latest ATP singles rankings published on Monday, 9th October 2006. Thanks to yesterday's second career title (his maiden Djokovic won in Amersfoort in July this year), Serbian player is 16th ranked in the world from this Monday with 1350 points, what is his new personal record (the last was no.21). Novak has also became first Serbian player ever who is ranked better then position 19. Until today, that record was held by Slobodan Boba Zivojinovic.

"I'm very satisfied I became best Serbian player ever in history, but my primary goal is to be world number one. It's very hard to describe how I feel now, this is my third final in 2006, and second title I won. It's a big achievement, because I'm professional tennis player only a few years."
Some sportsmen believe that new hymn, shield and new country support them to give their maximum.

"I was born in Serbia and live all my life here. In tennis we didn't fell so much countries' split, because there is no any player in Top 1000. Playing for your own country, for Serbia, is a specific feeling. I gave my maximum when I played for Yugoslavia, for Serbia and Montenegro, and now when I play for Serbia."


Taken from www.novak-djokovic.com/english/index.htm

[sonya]

[sabz]

YAY!!!
A BIG congratulations to Nole for his title!! thoroughly deserved! ;D
btw he looks very sophisticated in glasses

[Elisabeth]

My pics of him playing vs Clemens in Metz

[sonya]

Novak Djokovic Claimed Third Singles Title in Adelaide ;D


With a thrilling 6:3, 6:7 (6:8), 6:4 victory over the Aussie Chris Guccione, ranked 153 in the world, Novak Djokovic became the champion of the first round robin event on the ATP tour. With this victory, Novak will rise to 14th in Monday’s rankings, a career high.

It was tight from the very start, as Djokovic had to defend several break points in his opening service game. After trading holds, Novak snatched the first lead, going ahead 3:2. He would hold on to that break and break again at 5:3 to win the first set 6:3.

The two players held serve all the way through the second set, sending it into a tiebreak. Novak was the first to go up a mini-break at 2:1, but Guccione fought back to win the tiebreak 8:6 and level the match at a set each.

To start the final set, Novak raced off to a quick start, breaking Guccione’s first service game which he followed with a hold to go up to a 2:0 lead. At 3:1 he broke Guccione again to go up two breaks, 4:1. However, Guccione still had a lot of fight left in him and did not give up. Guccione earned one of the breaks back, but Nole still had the lead and would serve for the match at 5:4. With a double fault to give Guccione 0:30, the Australian still felt he had a chance to get back in the match, and had one chance to break Djokovic and get back on serve. However, he was unable to do it as Djokovic held on and claimed the championship on his third match point in 2 hours and 27 minutes, much to the delight of the large group of Serbian fans who had supported him throughout the week.

Updated news:

Novak Djokovic and Radek Stepanek didn't manage to win the title in doubles at the Adelaide International as they lost by Wesley Moodie (RSA) and Todd Perry (AUS) 6:4, 3:6, 15:13.

Next for Nole is the first Grand Slam in 2007 - The Australian Open, that begins on Monday, 15th January in Melbourne.


Written by Jessica Shelcusky

[sonya]