By Jaclyn Stacey
(January 16, 2013) MELBOURNE PARK, Australia – Twenty-fourth seed Jerzy Janowicz won the battle against his mind and his opponent on Wednesday, coming back from two sets down to progress through to the third round in a five set thriller against India’s Somdev Devvarman 6-7(10), 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, 7-5 at the Australian Open.
Drama unfolded in the first set tiebreaker when a line call didn’t go Janowicz’ way while he was up 9-8 and serving on set point. He proceeded to have a meltdown, collapsing to his knees and putting his forehead to the ground in frustration before a verbal tirade at the umpire ended in a code violation for unsportsmanlike behavior. He also hit his racquet against the umpires chair and threw his water bottle across the court during the outburst.
Devvarman remained focused throughout the drama and managed to seal the tiebreak 7-6(10) and the first set in 79 minutes. He then went on to win the second set 6-3 to take a two sets to love lead in the match.
Janowicz regained composure and hit 38 winners to Devvarman’s five in claiming the third and fourth sets to send the match into a decider.
After a more competitive almost hour long final set Janowicz hit a blistering forehand return winner on match point and goes through to play 10th seed Nicolas Almagro in the third round on Friday.
Jonowicz blamed poor umpiring during the first set on his mental breakdown.
“One of the most important mistake was set point in this tiebreak, 9 8. Was shanked forehand from Devvarman. The ball was really slow. It was clean out. I was already happy. I was already shouting, C’mon. But the referees didn’t say anything. This was the moment when I went nuts. Otherwise the rest of the match I was pretty calm.”
“Well, sometimes happens like this. You can’t control your emotions all the time. This was really big point for me. We played this set for more than 1 hour, 10 minutes, so this was really important point for me.”
“Actually, I went nuts. I calmed down little bit later on. Sometimes I have problem to control my emotions, but I’m trying to work on this.”
When asked about how making the final of the Paris Masters last year changed his life Janowicz says “This changed my life, but this not change me. I’m all the time same crazy person, and I hope is going to be all the time the same.”
“But, I mean, yeah, in life you change a lot. Now I don’t have to worry about my trips. I can buy easily business class for me for that kind of trip like to Australia. Now I don’t have to worry about money for my coach. So it’s much easier for me to play tennis now.”
Janowicz plays Nicolas Almagro on Friday in the first meeting between the pair. “No, I never play against Nicolas Almagro, but I know him pretty well because I was watching a lot of his matches in TV. So I know what I can expect from him. He’s really, really good player. He’s extremely, extremely solid player. He has unbelievable groundstrokes from baseline. So this is not easy match for me, but I will try my best, and for sure I will fight for every single point.”
Jaclyn Stacey is a Melbourne based freelance journalist covering the Australian Open tournament as media for Tennis Panorama News. Follow her Australian Open updates on @TennisNewsTPN. Follow her personal twitter @JackattackAU.