Novak Djokovic lost his opening match in Monte-Carlo this year (Image: Getty)

Novak Djokovic had another disappointing outing at the Monte-Carlo Masters this week, losing his opening match to Alejandro Tabilo. While the Serb wasn’t happy with his performance, it wasn’t a complete surprise to see him lose early, as he has struggled at the tournament in recent years.

Since winning the title for the second time in 2016, Djokovic has only been to the semi-final in Monaco once, 12 months ago. Djokovic beat Alex de Minaur to make it to the last four, and the Aussie made an unusual “ugly” remark when they shook hands at the net.

Djokovic is set to lose a small chunk of ranking points next week as he failed to match last year’s run at the Monte-Carlo Masters. A semi-finalist in 2024, he fell at the first hurdle this time out.

The world No. 5 has had difficulty stringing victories together at the Monte-Carlo Country Club in recent years. He also lost his opening match in 2022 and couldn’t get beyond round three in both 2021 and 2023.

Last year’s semi-final showing was something of an outlier. Djokovic went on a good run, beating strong players like De Minaur and Lorenzo Musetti before losing to Casper Ruud.

The Serb found ways to win when he wasn’t playing his best tennis – something De Minaur pointed out after their quarter-final showdown. Djokovic came through 7-5 6-4, getting revenge after the Aussie beat him at the United Cup earlier in the year.

Novak Djokovic won an ‘ugly’ match against Alex de Minaur last year (Image: Tennis TV)

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It was a rollercoaster match with eight breaks of serve. Djokovic hit 26 unforced errors but still got the job done, and he revealed that De Minaur told him it was an “ugly” contest.

“He said in the net that it was ugly in the second set. I think it was,” the two-time champion in Monte-Carlo said.

“We didn’t play really at the high level, we made a lot of unforced errors him and I. A lot of consecutive breaks of serve which is kind of expected for clay but maybe not this many.”

Djokovic later opened up about how he found a way to “win ugly”.

He explained: “You know, sometimes you just have to find a way to win. Today that was the case. In the end maybe you’re not feeling your best or playing your best.

“I think I had some really good moments, some brilliant moments, and I had some moments where I was struggling to hit the ball clean.”

Unfortunately, there was no winning ugly for Djokovic this year. The world No. 5 slammed his performance after coming off the court.

“It was actually more like the worst day. Look, I was hoping it was not going to happen, but it was quite a high probability I’m going to play this way,” he said after suffering a 6-3 6-4 defeat.

“I don’t know. Just horrible. Horrible feeling to play this way, and just sorry for all the people that have to witness this.”