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  • Carreño falls to Khachanov and the medal is complicated

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Novak Djokovic

is not used to losing.

How will it be?

This year she had only suffered three defeats, the last of her two and a half months ago, an eternity on the unstoppable tennis wheel, against

Rafael Nadal

in the final of the Masters 1000 in Rome.

But this Friday, in just over five hours, he regretted, despaired and even blasphemed twice in a row.

Both in the semifinals.

They are the things of the Olympic Games, with so many options, for the good and for the bad.

In singles he lost to

Alexander Zverev

(1-6, 6-3 and 6-1) and in doubles, together with his compatriot

Nina Stojanovic

, he fell against the Russian couple,

Elena Vesnina

and

Aslan Karatsev

(7-6 (4) and 7-5).

At the end of his continuous session, still with some anger, in a hurry and especially with a lot of fatigue, he attended to the press for a minute and 18 seconds and went to the Olympic Village to rest.

"I feel terrible right now, in every way, but this is sport. He (Zverev) played better. He served extremely well and my serve plummeted in the second set, where he made me eight games in a row," he commented when asked. an analysis of his first setback and, when questioned about his bronze chances this Saturday, he replied: "Fortunately I am starting from scratch. I hope to recover and win a medal for my country."

And that's it.

It was eleven o'clock at night in Tokyo and the number one in the world ranking was only thinking about ending one of the worst days of his career.

"You are the best tennis player in history"

Which curiously started out wonderfully. Against Zverev the victory was practically a fact and then, nothing, vanished. In the first hour it was Novak Djokovic, you already know him; in the second it was another tennis player. In the middle of the collapse, he screamed at his coaching staff looking for solutions, but the only solution was in him. Due to the improvement in the German's game, due to the wear suffered during the week or for any other reason,

Nole

disappeared from that game and even the next one, the doubles one. Between the second and the third set he lost eight consecutive games and when he reacted he was already receiving the praise of Zverev on the network. "You are the best tennis player in history," he said. Nice consolation.

This Saturday (08.00 hours in Spain) the Serbian will face

Pablo Carreño

in search of a medal that he already has, since he was already bronze in the 2008 Beijing Games when Nadal defeated him in the semifinals.

"This match is a rare thing in tennis. Normally you lose, you take a flight to the next tournament and you dedicate yourself to analyzing that defeat, where you have failed, what you can improve. Now it is the opposite. After this defeat, we remain here and the only objective in the next few hours is to forget what happened. Bronze, normally, is not won by the best technically or physically, but by the one who best recovers after losing in the semifinals ", analyzed

Sergi Bruguera

, Carreño's coach , after an unexpected stumble.

Carreño's confusion

The Spaniard came from an excellent tournament, with only one set lost, and the worst possible day was to be confused. It thundered and thundered over Tokyo and a few kilometers away, at the Olympic Stadium, they reported that a wild storm was falling, but at the Ariake Tennis Park not a drop to grant Carreño a truce. I was looking at the sky and there was no way. Russian

Karen Khachanov

punished him, punished him, punished him until he beat him (6-3 and 6-3) and left him out of the final.

During the first hour of the game, Carreño did not find any option and, when he had his first and only break ball, it disappeared like nothing.

Khachanov never trembled his service, very hard, always touching 200 km / h, a succession of

aces

.

In fact, the Russian, in a state of grace, did not miss practically anything with his

drive

and even in the first set he liked going up to the net to volleys.

"We must congratulate him because he was better and he deserved to beat me," Carreño acknowledged and then left a message for hope: "Now I am going to work so that today's defeat does not cost me tomorrow's defeat."

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  • Tennis JJOO

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  • Pablo Carreño

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