Last American man ousted as Djokovic drops Ginepri

Associated Press

paris

Face-down on the clay after getting his feet tangled, Robby Ginepri tried to make light of the situation by doing some push-ups right there in the French Open’s main stadium.

Seemed like a good idea at the time. The spectators loved it. Ginepri smiled. Even the American’s fourth-round opponent Monday, No. 3-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia, laughed at the gag.

The joke, it turned out, was on Ginepri. After playing so well for so long — all tournament and against Djokovic — the 98th-ranked Ginepri, of Kennesaw, Ga., suddenly lost that game and lost his way. The last U.S. man in the field at Roland Garros went quietly in the end, beaten by Djokovic 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

“Never doing those again on court. I think that kind of changed the momentum a little bit,” said Ginepri, who failed in his bid to become the first American man in the French Open quarterfinals since Andre Agassi in 2003. “I felt a little stupid, slipping and falling on my face, so tried to get the crowd back to my side. Maybe that took a little bit of my focus away.”

Until that moment, Ginepri was giving the 2008 Australian Open champion a tough time, grinding away in lengthy baseline rallies while splitting the opening two sets.

How big an upset would this have been? Not only was Ginepri 0-4 against Djokovic, but he’d lost all nine sets they’d played previously. Consider, too, that Ginepri came to Paris without a coach, and with a 1-7 record in 2010, something he acknowledged was “a pretty terrible stat.”

He also was 9-31 for his career on clay before last week. That included six first-round losses in seven previous French Open appearances, although he also managed to reach the fourth round in 2008.