Novak Djokovic botched his comeback after about a month and a half at the Masters tournament in Monte Carlo. The world number one was surprisingly defeated by the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round on Tuesday with 3:6 7:6 1:6 and was eliminated in his opening match. As the top seed, the Serb had a bye in the first round.
12.04.2022 19.08
Online since today, 7:08 p.m
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 was ranked 46th in the world. 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 couldn’t turn the game around. On the contrary: The set went to the Spaniard without much resistance, after 2:54 hours the game was over. For Davidovich Fokina it was the first victory in the third duel.
After almost three hours, Davidovich Fokina converted his second match point to win against Djokovic
Challenging for Djokovic in the past few months
“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.” Due to 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. Despite his early failure in Monte Carlo, Djokovic will not lose his lead in the world rankings. Second-placed Daniil Medvedev of Russia is currently sidelined with a hernia.
