Monte Carlo (AP) – World number one Novak Djokovic has botched his return to the tennis tour.
In Monte Carlo, the Serb lost surprisingly against the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in three sets 3: 6, 7: 6 (7: 5), 1: 6 and was eliminated in his opening match. In the first round, the top seed had a bye.
In his first match since the quarterfinals in Dubai at the end of February, the 20-time Grand Slam tournament winner was far from his top form. With 45 unforced errors, the number one in the world presented itself far too error-prone. Nine times he dropped from the world number 46. Davidovich Fokina taking the serve.
After losing the first set, Djokovic was twice behind with a break in the back and forth in the second section. Although the favorite then saved himself in the decisive third set, he didn’t manage to turn the game around. On the contrary: The set went to the Spaniard without much resistance, after 2:54 hours the game was over.
“It will take some time and some matches to really get going,” Djokovic previously admitted. “The past four or five months have been really challenging for me, mentally and emotionally.” Because of the lack of vaccination against the corona virus, Djokovic was not allowed to take part in the hard court tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami in the USA. He was unable to start at the Australian Open at the beginning of the season and had to leave Melbourne again in January after a legal tug of war. His only tournament before Monte Carlo this year was in Dubai.
In Monte Carlo, after Djokovic’s exit, Hamburg’s Alexander Zverev is the highest-ranked player in the field. The Olympic champion takes on Argentinian Federico Delbonis on Wednesday.