INDIAN WELLS, Calif. _ Here's to the pluggers, the runts of the underdog litter, and to those who toil to come back from injuries as much for their own satisfaction as for the fame of a No. 1 ranking that might never be theirs.
Here's to Philipp Kohlschreiber, a 35-year-old German who has never ranked better than 16th in the world, usually respectable but never good enough to beat a No. 1 player in the world until he booted Novak Djokovic from the third round of the BNP Paribas Open on Tuesday. Everything had to fall in place perfectly for Kohlschreiber to win the continuation of a match that had been suspended because of rain Monday night with Djokovic holding a 1-0 lead. Somehow it all clicked, and the result was a stunning 6-4, 6-4 victory.
"I'm not unhappy that I'm not in the spotlight. I'm a very quiet guy," Kohlschreiber said. "Of course, you wish to have maybe a top-10 ranking once in your career but if I'm not able to achieve that, I'm very happy how my life is going on."
