Fortunate loser Luca Nardi prompted a serious 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 shocked the highest seed and five-time former BNP Paribas Open champion producing a surprising show of confidence and resilience.
The 20-year-old Nardi introduced his absolute best tennis within the first and third units to notch the largest win of his profession.
“Congrats to him, particulary in third set he performed some nice tennis. He strikes effectively, he’s very proficient. He acquired into the primary draw as a fortunate loser so he didn’t have something to lose. He performed nice and deserves to win,” Djokovic stated within the post-match interview. “I used to be extra shocked with my stage. My stage was actually, actually dangerous. 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 an ideal day, I’m having a very dangerous day, and the result’s a damaging end result for me.”
Match statistics: aces (4-6), double faults (1-7), winners (18-36), unforced errors (31-41), complete factors gained (93-92)
Nardi’s fourth-round opponent within the California desert can be seventeenth seed Tommy Paul.
Photograph: Profimedia
