Novak Djokovic has to cope with a bitter disappointment in the still young season. In Indian Wells, the tennis superstar loses to a blatant outsider. In between, he rails against the umpire
Surprise in the Californian desert: Grand Slam record winner Novak Djokovic has unexpectedly failed in the third round of the ATP Masters in Indian Wells.
The tennis superstar from Serbia lost 4:6, 6:3, 3:6 to the Italian “lucky loser” Luca Nardi on Monday evening, ending Djokovic’s return to the tour with a bitter disappointment.
In the second set, the 36-year-old even got into an argument with umpire Greg Allensworth. “Are you kidding me?” he shouted at him when the score was 4:6, 2:0 from his point of view
Djokovic “completely confused “
Beforehand, Nardi had interrupted his body movement on a return, “completely confusing” Djokovic, as he told the umpire. Despite his stop, Nardi still played over the net and scored the point as a result. Djokovic was unhappy and began to rant
The top seed played only his second match since his semi-final exit at the Australian Open in January, when he missed out on his 25th Grand Slam title by losing to the eventual champion Jannik Sinner (Italy).
Djokovic had already had to go through three sets in his opening victory over outsider Aleksandar Vukic (Australia) at the first Masters of the season
“My level was really, really bad “
“He deserved to win. I was more surprised by my level. My level was really, really bad,” said Djokovic after the defeat against the world number 123.
And added: “He had a great day, I had a really bad one.” The world number one is still planning to compete at the next Masters in Miami next week.
Outsider Nardi was not intimidated by Djokovic, the idol of his childhood, and broke the 36-year-old to take a 4-2 lead in the deciding set, before he made victory perfect a short time later with an ace and then dropped his racket to the ground.
Djokovic made 31 errors in just under two and a half hours of play
“Nobody knew me before that night “
“I don’t know. I think it’s really a miracle. I’m a guy who’s not in the top 100 of the world rankings and now I’m beating Novak – crazy, crazy,” said Nardi, only 20 years old, completely baffled. “Nobody knew me before that night,” he added.
Nardi was initially eliminated in the final qualifying round against Belgian David Goffin, but later made it into the main draw because another player had to withdraw.
Shortly afterwards, he achieved a feat that few have managed before: Nardi is only the sixth player outside the top 100 to defeat a world number one at a Masters tournament since 1990.
No Name Nardi achieves extraordinary feat
Djokovic was playing in Indian Wells for the first time in five years and had originally aimed for his sixth triumph at the tournament, which has prize money of almost twelve million US dollars.
Now the unexpected setback: Djokovic has now lost five of his last seven matches against Italians – including three against Sinner.
