Djokovic’s shot: Luca Nardi and his controversial point commit an “impediment” that left the Serbian speechless

20 years old and a ‘lucky loser’, the Italian Luca Nardi (123rd in the ATP ranking) delivered a historic blow this Monday by eliminating the Serbian Novak Djokovic1 in the world ranking, in the third round of 1000 Masters From Indian wells.

The match had everything, and also a controversial, or at least curious, game. Was it when Nole made a rookie mistake and fell innocent? trap of the Italian boy. Djokovic served with break point against and Nardi He came back as if the ball had gone out.

The Serbian followed the point but thinking the ball was goneand there the tano accelerated and finished in the net, taking control of the match to recover the break at the start of the second set.

What happened? Djokovic was left protesting at the net with the referee while Nardi sat down in his armchair to cool off, without realizing what had happened.

In tennis there is a rule called “obstacle“, whose literal translation in Spanish would be “obstacle” or “obstacle”. It is sanctioned when the judge believes that one of the players performs some action to distract or harm his rival.

The day before, coincidentally, again at Indian Wells, Francisco Cerúndolo loses a point for “impediment” towards the local team Ben Shelton, when he spoke after hitting the ball: the Argentine thought his backhand had gone and in reality it had gone in and the American continued the exchange. “Obstacle,” exclaimed the referee, making Cerúndolo smile, resigned to his mistake.

The same didn’t happen with Nardi and Djokovic, and even if the Serbian ended up taking that second set, the play would have ended in all summaries.

Nardi beat five-time tournament champion Djokovic 6-4, 3-6 and 6-3 after entering the main draw as a ‘lucky loser’ despite losing to the Belgian in qualifying David Goffin.

The Italian became the fourth lowest-ranked player to beat a world number one. The record belongs to the Spaniards Francesco Clavetwho beat the Australian Lleyton Hewitt in 2003, in Miami.

Djokovic came into this event off the back of a hard-fought victory against the Australian Aleksandar Vukicwhich allowed him to reach 400 career victories in 1000 Masters.

Nardi will face the American in the round of 16 Tommy Paolo (number 17), who triumphed 6-4 and 6-4 against the Frenchman Ugo Umberto (14).