Withdrawn from the Masters 1000 in Madrid and eliminated in the third round in Rome on Sunday, the world number 1 is experiencing a complicated preparation for Roland-Garros.
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The first part of the season does not go as Novak Djokovic would have liked. The world number 1 was eliminated in the third round of the Masters 1000 in Rome, Sunday May 12, by the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo, 32nd player in the world (6-2, 6-3). The Serb was swept away in 1h07, did not get a break point and only won 10 points on his opponent’s serve during the entire match. For the first time since 2018, he will appear at Roland-Garros without having won a season title.
Two days after being knocked out by a spectator’s water bottle, Novak Djokovic took a second blow to the head on Sunday. Unrecognizable, he was not able to fight against Alejandro Tabilo and got into difficulty on his own from the first game of the match. Guilty of two double faults, he was broken from the start and trailed 4-0 in the first set. The scenario repeated itself from the first game of the second set, with two new double faults which allowed the Chilean to break. While serving to stay in the match at 5-3, he conceded a match point on his serve, and committed another double fault.
“We must congratulate my opponent, I had never faced him. He is a good player, very complete, I was not able to find good sensations on the court”, recognized the Serbian after the meeting, at a press conference. Novak Djokovic said to himself “completely off the mark, lacking rhythm and balance”.
Recent winner of the Aix-en-Provence Challenger and winner of the ATP 250 in Auckland at the start of the season, Alejandro Tabilo offers himself the greatest victory of his career and is full of confidence. He will face Russian Karen Khachanov in the round of 16.
