Bill Simons
MELBOURNE: Dennis Istomin may come from a tennis outback – Uzbekistan. He may be coached by his mom. But so what? Remember Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Jimmy Connors all had their games shaped by knowing women.
Goodness, Istomin wasn’t even supposed to come back from a broken leg, which he suffered in a brutal 2001.
It’s easy to dismiss him as the ultimate journeyman. The low-profile lad doesn’t even get a page in the ATP media guide. He’s not even that big a deal in his home country, and he just made it into the Aussie Open by winning a feed-in tournament for Asia-Pacific players. Plus, tennis nerds reminded us that no male wild card had ever defeated a Grand Slam defending champion.
Alas, Istomin got bashed by the fashion police. None other than John McEnroe asked, “Did you ever think you would see the day at a major where the guy would be wearing puke green shades?”
More to the point, did tennis ever think it would see the day when the six-time Aussie Open champion, Novak Djokovic, who just six months ago held all four major titles, would be taken down by the No. 117 player in the world? Just unthinkable.
Yes, when Sam Querrey beat Novak at Wimbledon, his coach Craig Boynton said, “Sometimes a blind squirrel finds a nut.”
Never mind that Istomin has significant vision issues, his mind-boggling 7-6(8), 5-7, 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 victory was, according to one voice in the press room, “like finding a needle in haystack.” Even Denis confided, “I didn’t expect what I’m doing now and what I did on the court.”
Inside Tennis asked, “if someone had told you at the beginning of the year that you would down Djokovic at the Aussie Open, what would you say?” Istomin replied, “I would say, ‘Are you crazy?’ for sure. For me, [it] was impossible to think I could hold it [for] five sets with Novak, physically and mentally.”
In five previous matches against Istomin, Djokovic had never lost and had dropped just one set. The Serb, long a pillar of consistency and professionalism, had lost only once to a player outside the top 100. For his part, Istomin could only point to two previous big-scalp wins. He beat David Ferrer at Indian Wells and Stan Wawrinka at Wimbledon. Plus, Novak was clearly regrouping from a patchy run. He scored a definitive win over Andy Murray in Doha in early January.
To many, he was the clear favorite to win a seventh title here and continue his ascent into the “greatest of all time” conversation.
But today the conversation was brief. The ATP’s leading mama’s boy upset the apple cart. The longtime spear carrier, who in 12 years of toil on the tour won just one tournament and never got past the fourth round of any Slam, shouted, “No way!” to Nole.
Djokovic seemed to lack a certain edge. “It’s one of these days,” said Novak, “when you don’t feel that great on the court, don’t have much rhythm, and the player you’re playing is feeling the ball very well.” While Nole double-faulted nine times and suffered an astounding 72 unforced errors, Istomin won 70 percent of his first serves. Time and again he refused to blink, as he blunted a key Nole surge to break in the fourth set, and scored a critical fifth set break that propelled him to his 4:48 marathon win.
The win, said Istomin, “means so much to me…To beat the world No. 2. I just hope it is not the only victory of mine. I’m trying to keep going.”
And such is tennis. In just two days, the first male wild card to ever knock out a Grand Slam defending champion will have to regroup (perhaps on a back court) and strut his stuff against Spain’s less-than-famous Pablo Carreno Busta. And all of Uzbekistan will certainly pray that their newly-minted hero is not a bust against Busta.
THE BUZZ
NICK’S BLACK EYE: Commenting on Nick Kyrgios, John McEnroe said, “It’s OK to show your emotions. I like to see that in a one-on-one game when you’re out there by yourself. But when he goes through those periods when he’s not competing, then it’s just a black eye for the sport. And it’s a black eye for him.”
WOZ ACROSS THE WORLD: Donald Trump is not the only real estate mogul in the news these days. Caroline Wozniacki has places in Denmark, New York, Florida and Monaco.
SAY IT ISN’T SO: Nick Kyrgios was booed as he walked off the court after his loss to Andreas Seppi.
RUBIN, ROYALTY AND THE FEDERER WOW FACTOR: It’s a little like Mr. Smith goes to Washington.
For two Grand Slams in a row the great Roger Federer has faced low-ranked outsiders who delighted in just playing Roger on Center Court. At Wimbledon Fed faced the enchanting, No. 772-ranked Marcus Willis, a teaching pro at the Warwick club, where he earned $32 an hour for his lessons.
Wednesday, here in Melbourne, it was 20-year-old Noah Rubin’s turn to have the experience of a lifetime – playing the master.
Rubin said, “I’ve been on the court with all the greats – Djokovic, Murray, Nadal – and they’re all incredible athletes and some of the best that tennis will ever see. but I’ve yet to be on the court with Federer until today, and there’s something about him obviously…He has an aura…You’re like, ‘Wow, ok, that’s Roger Federer.’ There were a couple of times in the first set when when I took a peek over to the other side and I’m like, ‘Wow’…It’s nice to see where my game is right now and how I feel on a stage like that.”
Rubin recalled one point, saying, “I swear to god the ball was past him and he hit it for a winner and you just have to look at that and say, ‘Ok, that’s Roger Federer for you.'” When asked about Roger’s future, Noah quipped, “He’s going to be here forever.”
