Fortunate loser Luca Nardi prompted a significant upset on the Indian Wells Tennis Backyard on Monday, when he beat world no.1 Novak Djokovic in three units – 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
The match lasted two hours and 20 minutes.
The Italian surprised the highest seed and five-time former BNP Paribas Open champion producing a shocking show of confidence and resilience.
The 20-year-old Nardi introduced his best possible tennis within the first and third units to notch the most important win of his profession.
“Congrats to him, particulary in third set he performed some nice tennis. He strikes nicely, he’s very gifted. He acquired into the principle draw as a fortunate loser so he didn’t have something to lose. He performed nice and deserves to win,” Djokovic mentioned within the post-match interview. “I used to be extra stunned with my stage. My stage was actually, actually unhealthy. I made some actually horrible unforced errors and performed defensive tennis. He performed extra free and aggressive than I did. These two issues coming collectively, he’s having a terrific day, I’m having a extremely unhealthy day, and the result’s a unfavourable end result for me.”
Match statistics: aces (4-6), double faults (1-7), winners (18-36), unforced errors (31-41), whole factors received (93-92)
Nardi’s fourth-round opponent within the California desert will probably be seventeenth seed Tommy Paul.
Photograph: Profimedia