1 ranking to Alcaraz after this tournament - even though Alcaraz was beaten by 135th-ranked Hungarian qualifier Fabian Marozsan in the third round on Monday.Īlcaraz will therefore be seeded No. Norrie won a title on clay in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year, beating Carlos Alcaraz in the final. "But thankfully I was able to play and finish the match, so hopefully tomorrow it will feel a bit better."ĭjokovic committed less than half as many unforced errors as Norrie, 14-29 and had two more winners, 21-19. " Every day is something," the 35-year-old Djokovic said, without specifying what was bothering him. "So I'm just glad to overcome today's challenge in straight sets and move on."ĭjokovic was seen in the trainer's room before the match, having taken three weeks off before this tournament because of a lingering issue with his surgically repaired right elbow.
So I was rushing a bit with everything but we couldn't (warm up) earlier because of the rain," Djokovic said. "I actually finished my warmup 10 minutes before I went on the court. On an overcast day after it had rained all morning, Djokovic appeared focused from the start. I'm going to respond to that."Ĭlearly motivated by Norrie's behavior, Djokovic produced his best clay-court performance of the year against the 13th-seeded Norrie, who was not made available for comment.Īiming for his seventh title on the red clay of the Foro Italico, Djokovic had his entire game clicking after struggling at times in the previous rounds and in his previous two tournaments on clay. I'm not going to allow someone behaving like this just bending my head. "He brought the fire, and I responded to that. "Those are the things that we players know in the locker room it's not fair play, it's not how we treat each other," Djokovic said. He's allowed to say 'Come on' in the face more or less every single point from basically first game. From the very beginning, he was doing all the things that were allowed. Maybe you could say he didn't hit me deliberately," Djokovic said when asked about his angry glare toward Norrie after the incident. Djokovic also took issue with how his British opponent took a medical time out just before he served out the match.
There were also other instances of bad sportsmanship from Norrie, Djokovic said after reaching the Italian Open quarterfinals for the 17th straight year. And it wasn't just because Cameron Norrie hit him in the left calf with an overhead smash after Djokovic had already turned his back and conceded a point early in the second set of the Serb's 6-3, 6-4 win on Tuesday.
Novak Djokovic's angry glare made it clear how furious the 22-time Grand Slam champion was with his opponent.
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