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INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Back on the march as the best player in men’s tennis, Novak Djokovic stumbled in the desert sunlight on Tuesday on his favorite surface.
Djokovic flubbed some forehands and returns he normally makes in his third-round match at the BNP Paribas Open and cracked a racket in frustration. But he also ran into an inspired opponent in Philipp Kohlschreiber, a 35-year-old German who had lost seven straight matches to Djokovic but has long savored the memory of surprising Djokovic in the fourth round of the 2009 French Open.
Now, nearly a decade later, Kohlschreiber has another upset tale to tell.