Ivan Gakhov wore Novak Djokovic’s shoes, but the No. 1 dug in deeper for “ugly” Monte Carlo win

I asked him whether the shoes served him well. He's like, ‘maybe not today but generally yes.’

What’s that famous adage: there are two sides to every story?

Take the second-round matchup between Novak Djokovic and Ivan Gakhov at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. One competitor entered as a global superstar with 1,046 tour-level wins to his name. The other a quintessential journeyman who just celebrated his first ATP match win a day earlier and was thrilled with an opportunity to face the player whose tennis shoes he wears and a champion he considers the greatest of all time.

For Djokovic, walking out on Court Rainier III Tuesday afternoon cemented his first appearance since March 3, when he fell to Daniil Medvedev in the Dubai semifinals to see his sizzling 15-0 season start halted. The Serbian, who opened the year by winning Adelaide and a record-extending 10th Australian Open, missed the Sunshine Double at Indian Wells and Miami due to U.S. border rules still requiring incoming international travelers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

On the flip side, Gakhov began checking off a series of firsts in his professional tennis career since arriving to Monte Carlo Saturday at 8:18 a.m. after getting into qualifying as the fourth alternate. It started with making his debut in any Masters 1000 draw, a successful one that saw the 26-year-old impressively turn the tide to defeat No. 2 qualifying seed Adrian Mannarino, 1-6, 6-0, 6-1, inside the venue’s iconic center court. Next was punching his ticket into his maiden 1000-level main draw with another three-set win—this time over No. 12 seed Luca Van Assche—before coming through a third deciding set to stop Mackenzie McDonald, 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-3, for his inaugural tour-level victory.

Gakhov’s next first: facing a Top 10 foe, one with considerable credentials that include 22 major trophies and two title runs at the Monte-Carlo Country Club where the two were slated to battle. With nothing to lose, Gakhov stayed with Djokovic for more than 90 minutes until the top seed separated himself to advance, 7-6 (5), 6-2.

“I never saw Ivan play before today. It’s always a little bit challenging when you don’t know someone, to come out on the court is quite unpredictable,” Djokovic said during his on-court interview. “I was also nervous in the beginning. The first set, I didn’t play well. He played good in some important points and it was really anybody’s set. It was just a few mistakes here and there that he made. In the second set, I lifted my level a little bit.

“All in all, it was kind of an ugly tennis win for me. But you have those days as well.”

The tone was set in the first 10 minutes when Gakhov held from deuce in his opening service game to avoid falling behind early. Djokovic’s first test of the day came at 2-2, 15-40, a period he shook off with an unreturned serve and supreme patience in winning a 22-shot rally to reach deuce. In the following game, it was Gakhov’s turn to stave off a pair of break points, confidently responding by delivering two flat lefty serves, the second an ace up the T.

Throughout the opening set, Gakhov worked to get rallies under the direction of his forehand, didn’t back down from trying to flatten out his backhand and was unafraid to change looks by knifing backhand slices and employing the drop shot. His poise, along with Djokovic needing more time to find his rhythm, saw the world No. 198 open a 4-3 lead. Like so many before him, the qualifier couldn’t consolidate the break—a flubbed, indecisive shot at 15-30 proving insurmountable.

Djokovic continued to dust off his racquet, working to build confidence on timing and sliding in his first clay-court contest since the 2022 Roland Garros quarterfinals. The top seed’s experience in tight situations was soon highlighted, as Djokovic dug deeper as the superior ball striker to clinch the tiebreaker.

In the fifth game of set two, Gakhov's seventh double fault enabled Djokovic to break. Now relaxed, the 35-year-old ultimately stormed off with the final five games of the clash in sealing the win at the one-hour-and-48-minute mark.

“I thanked him for wearing my shoes,” a smiling Djokovic told Prakash Amritraj on Tennis Channel. “I asked him whether the shoes served him well. He's like, ‘maybe not today but generally yes.’”

After hitting eight winners to 17 unforced errors in the first set, Djokovic cleaned up his ground game across the next set with a +2 differential. He awaits the winner of an all-Italian affair between No. 16 seed Lorenzo Musetti and qualifier Luca Nardi.