MELBOURNE, Australia — It was certainly possible to see trouble ahead for Novak Djokovic based on all the dents in his armor from 2016. But it would have taken a creative mind to see the latest knockout blow coming from 117th-ranked Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the second round of the Australian Open on Thursday.
When Istomin was asked how he would have responded if someone suggested such a thing a couple of weeks ago, he answered, “I would have said, ‘Are you crazy, or what?’ ”
But tennis is a game of centimeters — inches, if you’re stuck in the nonmetric world — and if you have doubts, consider that Istomin, 30, who is coached by his mother, very nearly did not make it here at all.