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MIAMI—A tennis match is a strange cross between a stark and often bitter confrontation between individuals, and the kind of dance that gave rise to the expression, “It takes two to tango.” You can't have a great match unless both players are in sync and playing off—as well as against—each other. Nobody knows that better tonight than Novak Djokovic, who notched up a 6-0, 7-6 (5) semifinal win over Juan Monaco in the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open.
Djokovic left the court with the tops of his tennis shoes all scuffed up from how often Monaco stepped on his toes and arches during a nightmarish first set—so frequently that by the time the second set was underway, Djokovic had lost the beat as well as his sense of rhythm; it took him all the way to the tiebreaker to recapture it.
“I think I did really well coming into the match,” Djokovic said afterward. “As I did yesterday in the quarterfinals, I started very strong, just going for the shots, being very aggressive, then I just wasn't able to close it out. . . With all the credit to him for staying in the match, fighting and coming back, I still think—you know, I gave him points. I made so many unforced errors that I got him back to the match.”
As slow starts go, this one was one for the books. Djokovic bombarded Monaco with heavy groundstrokes, belting nine winners (keep in mind that the set lasted just six games) and leading Monaco into making eight unforced errors and seven forced ones. By contrast, Djokovic a grand total of just six errors in the first set, only two of them forced.
You had to feel sorry for poor “Pico” during what must have seemed to him an interminable first set. When the large Latin contingent in crowd showered him with affection, chanting “Ole, Ole, Ole, Peee-co, Peee-co,” it almost seemed to make it worse—or, at least, more embarrassing as well as more urgent that he do something, anything. To quit was out of the question.
“Imagine if I'm losing like 4-0, 5-0 and I'm a little bit upset. All the crowd start to sing my name and was great feelings for me,” Monaco said in his post-match presser. “Then I start to think a little bit better on my mind. So it was great. And then on the second set I was happy because I start believing a little bit on my game. So I like the people were cheering for me a little bit.”
By the time Monaco got off life support and started finding his game, the defending champ and top seed had pretty thoroughly lost his own. You know something had to be all wrong when Djokovic can say, in hindsight, “I think I wasn't aggressive enough. Some moments in the second set when I was 5-3 and 5-4 up, maybe I needed to step in and go, you know, go for the shots—but I didn't.”
Instead, the men tugged at the set like two puppies, each unable to overpower the other. As Djokovic said, “It was a very similar match to the one (quarterfinal) against Ferrer.”
Monaco made two fewer total errors than Djokovic in the second set (45-43), but his singular failure was an inability to convert break points. It was a tribute to Djokovic’s sangfroid but also a shortcoming in Monaco. Twice late in the set, Djokovic was able to recover from 0-40 deficits on his serve to get to deuce, and Monaco converted just one of eight break points. Not that Nole himself was shooting out the lights; he converted just one of five.
In spite of all that, portions of the second set were riveting, filled with intense, high-quality rallies and spectacular defense by both men. Ultimately, the two began to tango again in a tiebreaker in which neither man gave up a point on serve until Monaco made a costly forehand error off a service return to fall behind 3-5. Djokovic didn’t surrender a service point until he blew his first match point at 6-4, but won it on his next one thanks to a forehand error by Monaco.
Djokovic has some issues to think about before he squares up to meet Andy Murray in the final on Sunday. He had to be pleased with how well he played his way out of some of those jams in the second set; even Monaco praised him, saying, “I mean, I have like love?40 sometimes on the second set, but then he play really well. I mean, it was like close.”
On the other hand, Djokovic has to ask how he allowed Monaco to get him in those fixes. And that lapse early in the second set, when he had his foot firmly planted on Monaco’s throat, ought to raise a red flag.
At first, Djokovic seemed to dismiss the idea that he ought to be concerned with taking his foot off the gas: “Well, in the important moments today I still felt that I should have done a bit more. But look, it was a straight-set win. In the tiebreak I stayed calm and focused and closed it out when I needed to.”
Later in the conversation, though, he conceded that he could ill-afford a comparable letdown in the final, irregardless of his opponent’s ranking. “Yeah, I can't afford (it) against anybody. As you could see, it could have been easily third set.”
Andy Murray can tell you that when you’re dancing with the stars, you can’t afford a misstep. Ignore that advice and you’re likely to get thrown off the show, pronto. Just ask Martina Navratilova.