The triumph against Novak Djokovic will forever remain in Luca Nardi’s mind. The adventure of the Marche native in Indian Wells ended in the round of 16 against the American Tommy Paul, who finished 6-4 6-3 in an hour and 21′, but nothing will be able to erase the result against the number 1 of the world and the sudden surge in popularity that followed.
A match, the one against Paul, which Nardi played well and which experienced key moments which, unlike two days ago, did not smile to the blue player, punished in the ninth game of the first set by a break which proved decisive for the world number 17, in total confidence after the success in Dallas and the final lost in Delray Beach against Fritz.
Nardi had the only break point of the whole match in the second game of the first set, after having already saved some in the first round of serve. In the second set, however, the break that led Paul to lead the match came in a hard-fought third game, on the third occasion.
What made the difference, more than other aspects, was the American’s aggressiveness on Nardi’s second serve, who won only 41% of the points (11 out of 27) when he didn’t field the first serve. He will console himself with the first top 100 in his career: he will start again from number 96, a ranking to be strengthened in the next events starting with the Masters 1000 in Miami, the first stage to accumulate points towards the first major medium-long term objective, that of avoiding the qualifiers at Roland Garros and enter directly into the main draw. The future belongs to him, a new life has begun for Nardi this week.