It was a day of drama, thunder, injury and great sadness Thursday at the third-round stage of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters.
Amidst the rain showers, Julien Benneteau broke his elbow and twisted his ankle in a nasty fall against Andy Murray. Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic was struggling with something altogether different — the death of his beloved grandfather.
The world No 1 had dedicated his victory at the ATP Masters event in Miami last month to the man he called "my inspiration." During practice here Thursday morning, Djokovic was told that his paternal grandfather, Vladimir Djokovic, had died. He left the court in tears.
Under the circumstances, Alexandr Dolgopolov, a Ukrainian with a very tricky, unorthodox game, was probably the last player Djokovic wanted to meet. You need patience against a player of this type on clay, and for a while Novak didn’t seem to have any. Then, having lost the first set 6-2, the Serb decided to go for it and began cracking winners everywhere. Dolgopolov was simply overwhelmed and went down 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
At the end, Djokovic, looked to the heavens and pointed toward the sky (which was black over the mountains that climb up behind the Country Club but azure blue out to sea). Shortly afterward, the place shook with thunder.
Djokovic was relieved of his media duties after the match. He issued a statement through the ATP saying that it had been hard for him to play and that after he won, he felt “exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally.”
Benneteau was giving Murray a hard time before his catastrophic fall. Three times in two games, the Frenchman caught Murray with lovely drop shots, which is not easy to do as the Scot moves forward like lightning. However, Murray was not as far forward in the court as he might have been and quickly discovered how well Benneteau could exploit that tactical error.
At 5-5, Benneteau moved quickly to his right and crashed to the ground after badly twisting his ankle. Crying out in pain, he clutched his wrist which, at first, seemed to be troubling more than the ankle. As it turned out it was a cracked elbow that was giving him the pain.
After having the ankle strapped, he tried playing two points, one of which he played left-handed, and then quit.
"They do a good job of playing a hundred replays of it on TV after these things happen,” Murray said. “I think they should not. It’s not nice to watch for anyone.”
Playing Murray is becoming a hazardous occupation this year. Mikhail Kukushkin pulled out of a match against him at the Australian Open. Then both Milos Raonic and Rafael Nadal gave him walkovers in Miami.
“I don’t think I’ve had four guys pull out against me in my entire career before this year, as far as I know,” Murray said. “But it’s especially troubling when they get hurt right in front of you.”
Murray’s mood had not improved by the time he turned up for his press conference, as he and his brother Jamie had just gone down 7-5, 6-4 to Mike and Bob Bryan in one of those rare doubles battles that pit two pairs of siblings against each other. The Scots had played well in the first set, but the twins began dominating in the second.
“It’s great to be able to play on the tour with Jamie but it’s not fun when you lose,” said Andy, the ultimate competitor.
Murray’s next opponent will be Tomas Berdych, who was a little lucky to come through against talented Japanese player Kei Nishikori. The big Czech had worked his way into the match after being outplayed 6-2 in the first set but, at 4-all in the third, Nishikori seemed to have him at his mercy once again.
Pushing Berdych outside the doubles lines with two heavily angled forehands at break point, Nishikori had done everything to leave himself serving for the match except finish the point. Presented with an open court, he hit his next forehand three feet wide. Appalled at the miss, the No. 12 seed barely won another point and went down 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Shortly before dusk fell, Rafael Nadal completed the strange day in straightforward fashion by beating Kukushkin 6-1, 6-1.
