Matteo Arnoldi won the fourth seed Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of Mutua Madrid Open on Saturday.
Arnoldi of Italy fired five aces and saved four out of five break points to win the match in 1 hour and 41 minutes.
24 -time Grand Slam champion Djokovic has lost three consecutive matches. In the Serbian Miami final, the Czech Republic’s Jakub fell near Mennsic and then lost to his Monte Carlo opener to Alejandro Tabilo in Chile.
“He is my idol, he has always been,” Arnoldi said about Djokovic. “I was just happy that I could play her. I never played him, just practiced with him. He already had a victory for me to play on a stage. He is not his best right now, so I came to court to play and win my best tennis and it happened, so I don’t even know what to say.”
Arnoldi took advantage of 32 unexpected errors of Djokovic.
“I was just trying to hold a little rally in the beginning, trying to make him (making some mistakes),” Arnoldi said. “Then once it starts, you start feeling better, the stress goes away a little. He gave me a little bit of sports. Surely it helped me that I broke it directly, so I was liking me, ‘Okay, it’s a good start’ and after that, it was an escalation. I started playing better and I think it became a very good match.”
Apart from this, on Saturday, the sixth seeded Alex de Mainaur won 6-2, 6-3 over Lorenzo Songo, Italy. Songo’s Conscious, 10th seed Lorenzo Mussetti enjoyed better luck with 7-6 (3), 6-2 on Tomas Martin Achery of Argentina.
Seventeenth seed Stephanos Tsitipus uprooted a first set’s stumbling to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 on the Jan-Land Stuff of Germany.
Dennis Shapovalov of Canada, who ranks 29th, is winning 6–1, 6–4 over Japan’s Kei Nishikori.
Nineteenth seed Tomas Machak and 26th seeded Jiri Leheka-two Czech Republic-and 32th seeded sebastian badges of Argentina fell into all three sets.
Jacob Fernley of Great Britain won 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 at the creation, fellow Britn Cameron Noori and won 2-6, 6-4, 6–0 over Bosnia and Damir Dazumhur of Herzegovina won 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 on the badge. Dzumhur will face Arnaldi in the next round.
-Bield level media
