Novak Breaks String But Doesn't Know It

In the heat of the moment, almost anything can happen on a tennis court. Just ask Novak Djokovic.

During the third set of his semi-final win at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Saturday, Djokovic lost a hard-fought rally against Kei Nishikori to put himself break point down against the Japanese star. The World No. 1 was about to start his pre-serve routine when chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani told him to look down at his racquet – Djokovic was about to attempt to save a break point with a broken string.

“It’s a very unusual occurrence, but sometimes, due to crowd noise, the player does not realise that his strings are broken,” ATP Supervisor Lars Graff, a former Gold Badge chair umpire, said. “It is then the duty of the chair umpire to inform the player. The rules are very clear that a player cannot start a point with broken strings.”

After his initial confusion cleared, Djokovic cracked a smile and walked to his bag to pick up a new frame. He would go on to save that break point and win the match in a third-set tie-break.