Lights out for top dogs in Madrid as Novak Djokovic eyes Roland Garros

Centre Court Column by Deborah Curtis-Setchell

Madrid and most of Spain experienced an unprecedented power failure for an entire day, causing a backlog in the order of play at the Madrid Masters.

And it was equally “lights out” for a handful of top seeds, namely Alexander Zverev, Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz, who all expected to reach the quarters of this event and were instead eliminated by electrifying younger talent.

Zverev was beaten convincingly for the fourth time in their head-to-heads by Argentinian No 1 Francis Cerundolo, who topped this big scalp, with a comeback quarter-final victory over Miami champion and rising star Jacob Mensik to notch up his tour leading 24th win of the season 3-6 7-6(5) 6-2.

Cerundolo saved a break and a match point at 5-5 in the second set, and rode momentum and the tidal wave of Spanish support to gain his second semi-final at this level.

“I was tired, I ran a lot today. I was never in control, I was really digging and fighting...” he said, which was a testament to teenager Mensik’s extraordinary talent.

The Czech was aiming to pass Tomas Machac as national No 1, but will have to mount another attack in Rome.

His mentor and idol, meanwhile, who has contributed enormously to Mensik’s sudden surge up the rankings and whom he beat in the Miami final, Djokovic, was felled by Italian Next-Gen Matteo Arnaldi in straight sets, 6-3 6-4.

This precipitated the Serbian GOAT pulling out of the Rome Masters in order to focus on Roland Garros and winning that 25th singles Grand Slam to catapult him ahead of joint record-holder, Margaret Court.

One knows when Djokovic applies his Teflon mindset to winning a big trophy, he typically succeeds.

But it’s hard to imagine how depriving himself of  much-needed competitive match play against a burgeoning line-up of aggressive, emerging players (some of whom he hasn’t yet encountered on court, namely Joao Fonseca, Gabriel Diallo and Learner Tien) pre the forthcoming clay major will aid his overly ambitious quest to become unsurpassed.

What should satisfy Djokovic is the fact he’s spawned this formidable generation, all inspired to play tennis because of watching him in action.

Lucky loser teenager Diallo burst onto the Madrid stage and looked indestructible, beating eighth-seeded Cameron Norrie and saving three match points to send top-10 player Grigor Dimitrov packing in what has been arguably the match of the tournament.

He then faltered against one-handed backhander Lorenzo Musetti in the quarters.

The Italian in the absence of compatriot and World No 1 Jannik Sinner, has been growing in confidence and is red-hot of late, steam rolling over 17th and sixth seeds Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur respectively, not to mention unseeded Diallo, to grab his second consecutive semis berth.

However, the most focused seed still standing, with his first semis spot on clay, is Indian Wells champion Jack Draper, who leapfrogs Djokovic in ranking and becomes only the second left-hander in a century (after GOAT Rafael Nadal) to find himself in the top five.

Draper, initially critiqued by former British No 1s as being “too prone to injury and lacking the endurance required for majors”, has found a way to manage this tendency by better pacing his participation at ATP Masters, which seems to have paid dividends.

Currently, there is no single player dominating men’s tennis, which has become as wide open as the Gulf of Mexico and results as unpredictable as the storms passing over it.

Contributing to this is the abundance of ‘switched on’ dark horses springing to the fore across all surfaces and from a wide cross section of countries, as showcased in Madrid.