Melbourne: Novak Djokovic suffered arguably the biggest defeat of his career when he crashed out of the Australian Open to 117th-ranked Uzbek Denis Istomin on Thursday, extending his mystifying slump in form. With Istomin inspired, the defending champion sent down 72 unforced errors as he lost 7-6 (10/8), 5-7, 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in the second round to end his bid for a record seventh title at Melbourne Park.
Later, Rafael Nadal beat Marcos Baghdatis and in the women’s draw, Serena Williams ousted Lucie Safarova 6-3, 6-4. But third seed Agnieszka Radwanska was a major casualty when she lost 3-6, 2-6 to Croatian veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. It is more than a decade since Djokovic made such an early exit from the Australian Open, and he hasn’t lost in the second round of any Grand Slam since Wimbledon in 2008.
Djokovic had only been defeated by a player outside the top 100 once in the past seven years, when he went down to 145-ranked Juan Martin del Potro at the Rio Olympics. The stunning result blows the men’s competition wide open as the six-time champion was widely expected to reach the January 29 final, where he was seeded to meet five-time runner-up Andy Murray.
It also raises fresh questions for the world number two, who has been in a funk since completing a career Grand Slam and winning his 12th major title at last year’s French Open. One beneficiary of Istomin’s win could be world number three Milos Raonic, who was seeded to meet Djokovic in the semifinals. Despite suffering from flu, the Canadian strode into the third round with 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) demolition of Gilles Muller and will next play France’s Gilles Simon.
Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic made a miraculous recovery from his record-breaking 84-game win over Horacio Zeballos two days earlier to beat Australian wildcard Andrew Whittington. The 6ft 11ins (2.11m) Karlovic, who fired 75 aces as he beat Zeballos 22-20 in the fifth set on Tuesday, won 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to set up an encounter with Belgium’s David Goffin. Nadal, attempting to improve on an injury-riddled 2016, swamped former finalist Baghdatis 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 and next plays top-rated German teen Alexander Zverev.
