Novak Djokovic was eradicated on his debut within the prestigious Doha ATP 500, confirming that he struggles quite a bit to play his finest tennis in second-tier tournaments.
The Serbian legend was enjoying his first event since injuring his left thigh on the 2025 Australian Open and has proven that he’s nonetheless a great distance from prime kind.
The previous world #1 performed first set in opposition to Matteo Berrettini – whom he had at all times defeated within the 4 matches – however the Italian ace’s serve and forehand made the distinction within the tiebreak.
The hole between the 2 gamers elevated within the second set, wherein Matteo performed with huge confidence and took benefit of Nole’s drop to prevail fairly comfortably.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion confided that he didn’t really feel any ache in his thigh in the course of the match and congratulated the 2021 Wimbledon finalist, who wanted this victory after the difficulties of the start of the season.
Djokovic now not wins
Djokovic – then again – continues to must postpone the a hundredth title of his legendary profession. It has been 465 days for the reason that Serbian lifted his final ATP trophy, not forgetting his resounding victory on the Paris Olympics final summer time.
Novak has not prevailed on the ATP tour since November 2023, when he gained the Nitto ATP Finals for the seventh time in his profession by defeating Jannik Sinner in Turin.
As time goes by, it’s more and more unlikely that the 37-year-old from Belgrade will be capable to equal and surpass the 109 titles gained by Jimmy Connors. Djokovic will attempt to attain at the least Roger Federer, who stopped at 103 titles.
Nole’s subsequent event would be the Indian Wells Masters 1000 in early March. The previous world No. 1 did not play nicely in California final yr, when he was defeated by younger Italian Luca Nardi after one of many worst performances of his total profession.
That defeat marked the top of his collaboration with Goran Ivanisevic.
