Novak Djokovic looked out-of-sorts as he was dumped out in his opening match at the Monte-Carlo Masters on Wednesday. The third seed had sparked injury fears earlier in the day when he was spotted grabbing his arm in pain during a practice session before a member of his team came over to massage it.
The 24-time Major winner was out for revenge against Alejandro Tabilo, the Chilean who also shocked him at last year’s Italian Open. But Djokovic struggled to hold serve and the world No. 32 pulled off the latest upset of the tournament, earning a straightforward 6-3 6-4 victory.
Ahead of this year’s Monte-Carlo Masters, Djokovic made it no secret that he didn’t have “high expectations”. Just 10 days ago, the Serb suffered a straight-set defeat in the final of the Miami Open, and he had a quick turnaround to get on the clay.
The 37-year-old had also been suffering with an eye infection but expected to be okay for his first match. However, he seemed to pick up a new issue ahead of his contest with Tabilo, as cameras caught his physio attending to his right forearm during a practice session.
Taking to Court Rainier III for the third match of the day, Djokovic broke to start the match, a promising sign that his physical issues were behind him – but things quickly went south.
The Chilean won five of the next six games, breaking twice to take the lead, and went on to close out the first set.
Tabilo broke early in the second set and the No. 3 seed looked subdued as he continued to go through the motions, doing just enough to keep the deficit to only one break.
The fans tried to spur him on, breaking out into chants of ‘Nole’, and Djokovic raised his level, earning break points for the first time since the opening game. But the errors started to come again and Tabilo held, putting himself a game away from victory.
The two-time former champion saved a match point on his serve but it only delayed the inevitable, and Tabilo served out his second victory over Djokovic before racing over to embrace his team in celebration.
“It’s been a tough year. So the nerves were there a bit. I tried to remember what I did well last time,” Tabilo said after the match.
“Thank God I served well today. It helped me a lot to regroup my game after that first game. It was an unreal match I think.”
It’s Djokovic’s first loss on the clay since Tabilo ousted him at last year’s Masters 1000 in Rome. The Serb reached the quarter-final at last year’s French Open before pulling out with an injury, and then won an Olympic gold medal on the clay courts at Stade Roland Garros.
The world No. 5 was clearly not at his best, hitting 29 unforced errors and landing just 54 per cent of his first serves. Straight after the match, Djokovic apologised to those who “witnessed” his performance and claimed he played “horribly”. The world No. 5 also addressed concerns about his arm and eye, claiming there was “no injury”.
Djokovic is the latest top seed to suffer a shock early exit in Monaco. On Tuesday, world No. 2 Alexander Zverev was dumped out by Matteo Berrettini.
It means that three-time champion Stefanos Tsitsipas is the highest seed left in the top half of the draw at No. 6. He takes on Nuno Borges for a spot in the quarter-final on Thursday.
