Novak Djokovic made his return to competitive tennis after 42 days on the sidelines from what he called “the worst injury of his career” and defeated Xavier Malisse, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors in Basel. The top-ranked player in the world re-aggravated a back injury he suffered at the U.S. Open when he had to retire against Argentina’s Juan-Martin del Potro while playing Davis Cup one week after winning the Open and capturing his third major of the year. Djokovic skipped the fall Asian swing and returned in Basel, Roger Federer’s hometown, and a tournament where he had only lost one match, last year in the finals to Federer—after beating Federer in the Basel final the year before.
Djokovic walked onto the St. Jakobshalle indoor stadium court donning a Halloween mask and receiving a rousing ovation from the Swiss crowd. In Malisse, Djokovic was playing one of the few players on the ATP tour besides Rafael Nadal and Federer who owns a winning record against the Serb. The 31-year-old had beaten Djokovic in their only meeting, on grass at Queen’s Club in 2010. Both players are similar in build—Djokovic 6’2”, 176 pounds; Malisse 6’1”, 183pounds—and rely heavily on their serves and two-handed backhands. Djokovic sprinted out to a 3-0 lead in the first set and it looked like he’d never been away. The 24-year-old was using kick serves, down-the-line backhand winners and even a swinging forehand volley winner from below net level to go up 4-1. Malisse dropped the first set on his own serve with a double fault after saving three set points.
The 47th-ranked Malisse pulled ahead of Djokovic in the second set, breaking the Serb on a double fault to go up 4-3. He held from that point on and won the second set, but in the third, Djokovic once again broke Malisse on his first service game and was sailing along, winning all nine points when his first serve landed in over his first three service games. But at 5-3, serving for the match, Djokovic made three unforced errors and once again lost serve with a double fault, this after Malisse squandered two break points with a forehand into the net cord and a smash just beyond the baseline.
Instead of moving into the net when he had Malisse on the run, Djokovic hit too many misguided drop shots today. It was just such a shot he dropped into the net to make the score 5-5 in the third after the Serb had held a match point on Malisse’s serve. Djokovic finally closed out the match after more than two hours of play when Malisse made four unforced errors to seal his defeat. In the end, Djokovic had 32 unforced errors and seven double faults in three sets of play, but he had succeeded in upping his match record for 2011 to 65-3.
“I played well for one set and a half,” said Djokovic, “but then I made too many unforced errors and double faults.” I've only been playing for the last week and a half. I didn’t do anything for four-and-a-half weeks. But injuries are a part of our game.”
—Dan Markowitz