Ivan Gakhov celebrates like a king after qualifier beaten by Djokovic
Monte Carlo Masters qualifier Ivan Gakhov was pictured celebrating like a king after giving 22-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic a tough match in Tuesday’s first-round clash. Djokovic eventually overcame Gakhov 7-6 6-2 after initially struggling for momentum in the first set.
Despite being knocked out of the tournament by the world No 1, Gakhov was later pictured celebrating his achievements back in his hotel. The 26-year-old was seen sat in the bath alongside his girlfriend, who captured the scenes on her Instagram story.
Gakhov could be seen eating pizza and had soap bubbles in his hair forming a crown. His girlfriend was sat with what appeared to be a bottle of beer and captioned her post: “And that’s how heroes celebrate life.”
The Instagram story was shared to Reddit by u/keythings25, who said: “The qualifier who played Novak yesterday doing king s***.”
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Another tennis fan, u/OddTipAandPicks, simply commented Gakhov’s name alongside a goat emoji, a reference to the phrase ‘Greatest Of All Time’.
Djokovic revealed that he jokingly thanked Gakhov, the world No 198, for wearing his signature Asics court shoes. The Serb said: “I thanked him for wearing my shoes. I actually saw this, I saw the shoes. I saw the logo. I asked him whether the shoes served him. Well, [he said], ‘maybe not today but generally’.
“It was very nice, you know, so before the matching match, of course, after as well, he said it was a pleasure, that he admires my career in the game and everything.”
Djokovic admitted that he struggled to find his rhythm after five weeks without a competitive match due to his inability to travel to the US over his Covid vaccination status. The 35-year-old said he finds that clay is the hardest surface to get used to.
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“Clay surface for me is the most challenging surface to adapt, to get into rhythm. Maybe for some other guys it’s more natural, the movement, the ball striking, in a way finding the right tempo on the shots. For me, it just takes more than some other guys. That’s how it is, how it always was.”
He added: “Match play is what I need. Practice points is something that helps, but nothing helps as [much as] playing an official match. So that’s why I’m hoping I can have as many matches as possible this week.
“I’m really glad I overcame the first step, because I hope things will be better and easier from this point onwards.”
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