Tennis icon John McEnroe was left in disbelief by Novak Djokovic\u2019s level in the first set of his Wimbledon encounter with Alex de Minaur.<\/p>\n
In his fourth round clash with 11th seed de Minaur, a badly out-of-sorts Djokovic lost the first set 6-1 in just 31 minutes.<\/p>\n
Djokovic<\/a>, the current world No 6, hit twice as many unforced errors as winners in the set: 16 to eight.<\/p>\n The 38-year-old Serbian landed only 48% of his first serves and won just two of 11 second serve points as he hit four double faults.<\/p>\n The seven-time Wimbledon champion was broken three times \u2014 in the first, fifth and seventh games of the match \u2014 while he was unable to convert the single break point he had on de Minaur\u2019s serve in the second game.<\/p>\n Statistically, it was not a vintage set from de Minaur either, with the 26-year-old Aussie making only 40% of his first serves and registering four winners to five unforced errors.<\/p>\n Commentating on the match for the BBC, McEnroe asserted that Djokovic was \u201cdisgusted with himself\u201d and claimed the24-time Grand Slam winner would retire if he continued to play at this level.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is hard to believe we are watching this right now. De Minaur is making it look easy,\u201d said the seven-time major singles champion.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t remember him ever play a worse set than this. I mean, it\u2019s literally been years.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s absolutely disgusted with himself.\u00a0This is pleasantly surprising for De Minaur. He didn\u2019t have to do anything he didn\u2019t want to out there.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not gonna happen that he continues to play this badly. If he did, for two more sets, he\u2019d quit on the spot.\u201d<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic makes \u2018nervous\u2019 confession after surviving worst-ever start to Wimbledon match<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The most 6-0 sets won at Grand Slam tournaments: Novak Djokovic sets new record<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Todd Woodbridge, a nine-time Wimbledon champion in men\u2019s doubles, asked McEnroe:\u00a0\u201cWhat do you mean, career wise?\u201d<\/p>\n McEnroe replied:\u00a0\u201cI would predict [that Djokovic will retire], if he played like this for two more sets.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s gonna happen. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a prayer that it\u2019s going to happen. But this is incredible to see him play like this.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, he\u2019s won\u2026 Look, let\u2019s hang on here a second. That\u2019s why they have best of five.<\/p>\n \u201cRoger Federer took the shades off \u2019cause he can\u2019t believe\u2026 He was like, \u2018Wait a minute, I can\u2019t believe what I\u2019m watching here. Where was this when I played him in the three finals?’\u201d<\/p>\n After Djokovic broke de Minaur in the first game of the second set, McEnroe said:\u00a0\u201cI would have bet most of my life savings on Novak getting that first break in the second set.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is nice to see someone use the court coverage and their speed as Alex De Minaur did in that game. He has put that one-handed slice to good effect early.<\/p>\n During a marathon second game of set two where de Minaur broke back, the American added: \u201cDjokovic seems to be having trouble with the low ball here in the first 40 minutes or so.<\/p>\n \u201cHis serve percentage has been poor at only 54% so far. That is pretty unheard of for him.<\/p>\n \u201cThe crowd are a bit stunned at what they are seeing so far.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT:\u00a0Novak Djokovic\u2019s ex-coach asked how many Grand Slams Carlos Alcaraz & Jannik Sinner will win<\/a> The post John McEnroe issues scathing Novak Djokovic Wimbledon verdict as\u00a0he makes retirement comment<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tennis icon John McEnroe was left in disbelief by Novak Djokovic\u2019s level in the first set of his Wimbledon encounter with Alex de Minaur. In his fourth round clash with 11th seed de Minaur, a badly out-of-sorts Djokovic lost the first set 6-1 in just 31 minutes. Djokovic, the current world No 6, hit twice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Novak Djokovic News<\/h2>\n
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