Competing in the Professional Tennis Association (ATP) 1000 tournament held in Monaco, the 35-year-old tennis player faced the world number 21 Italy Lorenzo Musetti in the last 16 rounds.
After two hours and 54 minutes of contentious struggle, 21-year-old Musetti had a great surprise, defeating his opponent, who has 22 grand slam titles in his career, 2-1 in sets of 4-6, 7-6 and 6-4.
On the other hand, Djokovic, leading 4-3 in the second set of the match, had a short argument with the referee of the match, Aurelie Tourte. Saying that the ball went out of line in Musetti’s “forehand” hit, the Serbian tennis player objected to the referee’s decision. The referee stood by his decision in the tournament, which did not include the “Hawk Eye” technology application. The publisher’s repetition of the position with the technology in question showed that Djokovic was right.
Musetti will face his compatriot world number 8 Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals.
RUUD ALSO ELIMINATED
Another surprise in the tournament was world number 100 German Jan-Lennard Struff, who was among the last 8 tennis players by beating world number 4 Norwegian Casper Ruud 6-1 and 7-6 sets 2-0.
Jan-Lennard Struff faced Russian Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals.