Surprise in the Californian desert: Grand Slam record winner Novak Djokovic completely unexpectedly failed in the third round at the ATP Masters in Indian Wells.
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The tennis superstar from Serbia lost to the Italian “lucky loser” Luca Nardi 4:6, 6:3, 3:6 on Monday evening. Djokovic’s return to the tour ended in bitter disappointment.
In the second set, the 36-year-old even had a fight with referee Greg Allensworth. “Are you kidding me?” he shouted to him when the score was 4:6, 2:0 from his point of view.
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Djokovic “completely confused”
Nardi had previously interrupted his body movement during a return, “completely confusing” Djokovic, as he told the referee. Despite his stop, Nardi still played over the net and scored the point. Djokovic was dissatisfied and began to complain.
The top-seeded exceptional player played only his second game since the semi-final exit at the Australian Open in January, when he missed out on his 25th Grand Slam title due to a defeat against eventual champion Jannik Sinner (Italy).
In the opening victory over outsider Aleksandar Vukic (Australia), Djokovic had to go through three sets at the first Masters of the season.
“My level was really, really bad”
“He deserves to win. I was rather surprised by my level. My level was really, really bad,” said Djokovic after the loss to world number 123.
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And added: “He had a great day, I had a really bad day.” The world number one still plans to compete at the next Masters in Miami next week.
Outsider Nardi did not allow himself to be intimidated by Djokovic, his childhood idol, and broke the 36-year-old to take a 4-2 lead in the deciding set, before he perfected the victory 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 it. I think it’s really a miracle. “I’m a guy who’s not in the top 100 in the world rankings and now I’m beating Novak – crazy, crazy,” said Nardi, only 20 years old, completely dumbfounded. “Nobody knew me before that night,” he added.
Nardi was initially eliminated in the last qualifying round against the Belgian David Goffin, but later slipped into the main draw because another player had to withdraw.
Luca Nardi achieved a mega coup against Novak Djokovic
Shortly afterwards, he achieved a feat that only a few have achieved before: Nardi is only the sixth player outside the top 100 to defeat a world number one in a Masters tournament since 1990.
No Name Nardi achieves an extraordinary feat
Djokovic was playing in Indian Wells for the first time in five years and was originally aiming for his sixth triumph in the tournament, which is worth 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.
With Sports Information Service (SID)