The Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic botched his first match after almost two months of competition break.
The 24-time Grand Slam tournament winner lost in the second round of the Masters 1000 tournament in Rome against Croatian Dino Prizmic 6:2, 2:6, 4:6.
After 2:15 hours, the surprising defeat of the third-seeded Serb was clear.
“He’s my idol. It was definitely a great match for me today. I played incredibly,” said 20-year-old Prizmic afterwards: “I just want to stay focused and be ready for the next game.”
Djokovic now only plays a few tournaments in the season, but is still ranked fourth in the world rankings, directly behind Alexander Zverev.
In Rome, the 38-year-old wanted to prepare for the clay court spectacle at the French Open from May 24th. There, Djokovic is making a new attempt for his 25th Grand Slam tournament victory, which was denied him in the Australian Open final he lost to Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz at the beginning of the year.
