Can’t believe it himself: Lorenzo Sonego triumphed against Novak Djokovic. © APA / GEORG HOCHMUTH
What a surprise: Novak Djokovic has already been eliminated in the quarter-finals at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna (1.4 million euros in prize money) – and was downright nibbled by an Italian.
October 30, 2020
Only sport writes such stories: Actually, Lorenzo Sonego should not have been allowed to compete in Vienna, but slipped into the main field as a lucky loser and now celebrated the greatest success of his career. In the quarter-finals, the number 42 in the world defeated the great Novak Djokovic. Whereby defeating is an understatement: With 6: 2, 6: 1, the Turinese swept the world’s number 1 off the field in around 70 minutes. In the semifinals, the sensation man will now meet either Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) or Daniel Evans (GBR).
Only by chance
For Lorenzo Sonego, the tournament in Vienna actually ended last Sunday. In the second qualifying round, the 25-year-old failed in 3 sets against Alijaz Bedene from Slovenia. But because Cologne finalist Diego Schwartzman canceled at the last minute, Sonego slipped into the main field as the “lucky loser”. There he fought his way to the quarter-finals thanks to two sovereign victories against Dusan Lajovic and Hubert Hurkacz, where the currently best tennis player in the world, Novak Djokovic, was waiting. A clear thing, one would think. But in the end everything turned out differently.
Djokovic (left) congratulates Sonego. © APA / GEORG HOCHMUTH
Sonego played aggressively and courageously from the start, while Djokovic seemed slow, sedate and powerless. When the young Italian promptly took both the 1st and 2nd serve from his opponent and suddenly it was 4-0, at the latest then you noticed that a huge sensation was looming. As a result, Sonego was strong as a bear, especially when it came to his own serve, and posed huge problems for the great Djokovic. The game-deciding game occurred in the middle of the 2nd set when Sonego was 2: 1: Djokovic worked out 3 break opportunities, but couldn’t use any and had to give up this game too. After that, the underdog didn’t let anything burn.
Ascended into a select circle
After the match, Sonego could hardly believe it. “That was the most extraordinary game I’ve ever played in my career,” he said, visibly touched. With this victory, the 25-year-old made it into a select group: Before him, only 5 Italians had managed to beat the number 1. Fabio Fognini last accomplished this feat in 2017 in Rome against Andy Murray. Corrado Barazzutti (against Ilie Nastase), Adriano Panatta (twice against Jimmy Connors), Gianluca Pozzi (against Andre Agassi) and Filippo Volandri (against Roger Federer) were able to triumph against the world number one.
Author: it
