Elena Vesnina: I feel sorry for Novak Djokovic, tough day for him

Russian doubles specialist Elena Vesnina felt sorry for Novak Djokovic after the Serb lost two semifinal matches at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday. 

Djokovic, ranked at No. 1 in the world, lost to Alexander Zverev in the Tokyo Olympics singles semifinal.

A few hours later, Djokovic returned to the court but again ended on the losing side as he and Nina Stojanovic lost to Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev. 

“I feel sorry for Novak – it’s a tough day for him,” said Vesnina, per the ITF website. “But this is sport, this is tennis – the level is really high, the nerves are really high.

“We’re really happy that we won this match because we wanted to be in the final. We were focusing on every single point, we didn’t want to give anything. We knew that we were playing against such a champion like Novak – for me, it was such an honour to play against him, a dream come true, and I admire him. But it’s just great that we won today, we played such a solid match and I’m happy that we won it.”

Vesnina doesn't want to put pressure on herself 

“It’s already a great present to play in the final – I’m not going to put any pressure on myself anyway,” Vesnina said. “I’m just going to enjoy it.”

Karatsev was happy with the Russian's success at the Tokyo Olympics. 

“We came here, and we have two finals already – three with Karen in the other final,” said Karatsev. “It’s really good for the country and special to be playing well at the Olympic Games. Now we have to prepare ourselves and be ready.”

It's all set for an all-Russian mixed doubles final as Vesnina and Karatsev are set to take on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrey Rublev. 

“We’re a team – we’ll congratulate them, it’s amazing,” Vesnina said. “On the court we will play against each other and try to win, but off the court nothing is going to change. Maybe we will have a few jokes about the match, but that’s it.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3felgzz