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“He Broke My Rhythm”: Roberto Bautista Agut Furious With the Chair Umpire in Loss Against Novak Djokovic

Published 08/29/2020, 7:06 AM EDT

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Novak Djokovic just survived as he continued his unbeaten run in 2020. Extending his record to 22-0 the Serbian defeated Roberto Bautista Agut in the semifinal of the Western & Southern Open.

Djokovic was outplayed for the majority of the match with Roberto sticking in great baseline strokes. The Spaniard deservingly took the first set 6-4 and it looked like we had an upset in our hands.

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Novak Djokovic defeated Roberto Bautista Agut 4-6 6-4 7-6

But Djokovic held on to the match claiming the second set after breaking Roberto at 5-4 to win 6-4. The third set was a topsy turvy one with both the players finding it hard to hold on to their service games. Out of the 12 games in the set(excluding the tiebreaker) serve was broken 6 times and Roberto came back from 5-2 down to serve for the match at 6-5. But Djokovic broke him taking the final set to the tiebreaker where he prevailed 7-0 taking the match 4-6 6-4 7-6.

But Roberto was furious with the chair umpire Lars Graff as frequent breaks in the match broke the Spaniard’s rhythm. Roberto was especially unhappy with the timing of the roof closing. When the break for the roof closing was taken he was serving in the second set trailing at 5-4. The interruption apparently broke his rhythm which resulted in him losing the game and set to Djokovic.

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“It’s not the 1st time I disagree with Lars Graff. I think it was not great & it was 100% wrong. I lost the toss of the ball with my serve on the 5-4 & I cannot do nothing right now, no? But it’s for sure a bad decision from Lars Graff.” Roberto furiously said.

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“He broke my rhythm. It was the 3rd time we stop the rhythm in the match. 1 at toilet break & a physio break & then a roof break. So the roof break could wait a little bit to finish the set because to close the roof, it’s 5 minutes. I totally disagree with the decision he took.” he explained

Roberto Bautista Agut gave a tough fight to the World No.1. Nevertheless, he will try harder and prepare for the US Open which starts within a few days. Meanwhile, Djokovic will play Milos Raonic in the final of the Western & Southern Open.

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Written by:

Bhavishya Mittal

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Bhavishya Mittal is a tennis author for EssentiallySports, who is currently pursuing his Bachelor's degree in Journalism from Manipal University. A former sports editor for The Manipal Journal, Bhavishya has also worked for The New Indian Express. He has a keen eye for many sports but he is a particularly ardent follower of tennis, with a zest to create riveting articles on the ever-evolving sport.
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