Novak Djokovic wasn’t happy. The ballpersons weren’t getting him the balls quickly enough. The fans—as they will in Rome—were strolling around in between points. The chair umpire had just slapped him with a warning for taking too much time between serves. Worst of all, Djokovic’s opponent, Roberto Bautista Agut, had found a groove and ridden it back into contention. After losing the first set, Bautista Agut had bounced back from 1-3 down to take a 4-3 lead with an inside-out forehand winner. For those three games, the streaky Spaniard had outgunned the world No. 2 from the baseline.
Djokovic had the exasperated look of a man who had been down this road one too many times recently. He jawed with the chair umpire; he urged the ball kids to hurry up; he stared in the direction of his player’s box. Anybody who had been watching him for the last nine months or so could have been forgiven for expecting the worst. So far in 2017, we had seen him suffer unexpected defeats at the hands of Denis Istomin, Nick Kyrgios (twice) and David Goffin. Even when Djokovic was winning, many of his victories were three-set struggles. Now it looked like RBA was going to push this one to a third.
But he didn’t. Instead, something even more surprising happened: Djokovic immediately turned the match back around and won the last three games for a more-straightforward-than-it-sounds 6-4, 6-4 win.
What was the difference? Rather than let his frustration get the better of him, and take him down further, Djokovic used his angry edge as fuel, the way he did when he was a hungry young player on the rise a decade ago. When Bautista Agut reflexed a forehand winner at 4-3, Djokovic didn’t throw his hands up in despair; instead, he answered by putting together an intelligently aggressive rally that took Bautista Agut out of the point entirely. Then he smacked an ace to hold for 4-4.
