All so difficult for Djokovic, easy for Nadal at French Open
PARIS — From a tiff with the chair umpire to the big deficit he created and then needed to overcome in a steady rain, Novak Djokovic had an all-around difficult day at the French Open.
The stark numbers on the scoreboards at Court Philippe Chatrier revealed plenty about how differently things went in the back-to-back matches Friday for Djokovic, the defending champion and Nadal, a nine-time champ.
First up in the main stadium at Roland Garros was Nadal, who won 82 points and conceded merely 36 in a 6-0, 6-1, 6-0 victory over 63rd-ranked Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Djokovic followed in the main stadium and found himself in quite a bit of trouble right away against 41st-ranked Diego Schwartzman before emerging to win 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Though it took Basilashvili 12 games and 49 minutes to claim just a single game — which spectators greeted with a roar as he stood motionless and straight-faced — Schwartzman not only took the second game of his match against Djokovic, he grabbed the opening set, too.
Schwartzman played well during that stretch, but the second-seeded player’s biggest problem was himself.
Djokovic wound up with 55 unforced errors to 43 winners, and all sorts of issues on his backhand wing, which produced 33 of those miscues, all under the watchful eye of new coach Andre Agassi.
Djokovic, who completed a career Grand Slam a year ago in Paris, finally figured out how to steady his game, if not his demeanor.
In the fourth set, with Djokovic leading 4-0 and serving at 30-all, he was given a fault by chair umpire Carlos Ramos for multiple time violations.
Moments later, just about to face a break point, Djokovic yelled at himself, mostly in Serbian.
When play resumed, Djokovic missed a forehand to drop that game.
Elsewhere on Day 6 at Roland Garros, 10th-seeded David Goffin stopped playing after turning his ankle when he tripped on a tarp at the back of the court in the first set against Horacio Zeballos; No. 5 Milos Raonic advanced when his opponent, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, quit because of a left thigh injury; No. 20 Pablo Carreno Busta eliminated No. 11 Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 6-3, 6-4; and No. 6 Dominic Thiem was a 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-3 winner against No. 25 Steve Johnson, an American who generated sympathy from fans and foes as he displayed raw emotion while competing just weeks after the death of his father.
In women’s play, defending champion Garbine Muguruza beat No. 27 Yulia Putintseva 7-5, 6-2, and a couple of unseeded Americans lost to seeded opponents:
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