World No 1 stunned by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Round 3 at Toronto
Novak Djokovic leaves Stadium Court after his elimination at the hands of Jo-Wilfred Tsonga at Rexall Centre. Pic/Getty Images.
Toronto: World No 1 Novak Djokovic slumped to a 2-6, 2-6 defeat to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round of the Toronto Masters on Thursday while Roger Federer advanced with a tight victory.
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Novak Djokovic leaves Stadium Court after his elimination at the hands of Jo-Wilfred Tsonga at Rexall Centre. Pic/Getty Images.
Newly married Djokovic, who needed almost three hours to get past Gael Monfils in his opening tie this week, looked under-prepared against Tsonga, the 13th seed.
The Serb was joined on the sidelines by his doubles partner Stan Wawrinka, with the Australian Open winner losing to Kevin Anderson 7-6 (10/8), 7-5. “I didn’t play even close to what I intended before going to the court, just nothing was going — no baseline, no serve, no return,” said Djokovic.
“It was just generally a very bad day, very poor performance. I couldn’t do much.” Djokovic cut a disconsolate figure after his surprisingly heavy loss. “Obviously I feel disappointment and I’m trying to understand what I did wrong. Confidence is the hardest thing to get but easiest thing to lose. Matches like this can really play with your mind,” he said.
“I didn’t feel exhausted or something like that, but even in the first match (almost three hours against Monfils) I was not feeling very comfortable on the court. I wasn’t hitting the ball clean and made a lot of unforced errors.”
Federer was meanwhile forced to the limit by Marin Cilic, with the second seed claiming a 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-4 win.