Casper Ruud, Jack Draper and Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic started the European clay court season eyeing a move back into the top four of the ATP Rankings, but he is now facing a huge slide backwards after a couple of thumping defeats.

Djokovic raised hopes that he could still compete with the young guns on the ATP Tour as he made it through to the Miami Open final in March.

Even after a defeat against Jakub Mensik in the Miami finale, Djokovic should have been inspired by his encouraging performance, but he has failed to back that up in his opening two clay court events.

A defeat against Alejandro Tabilo at the Monte Carlo Masters came amid what Djokovic described as a ‘horrible’ performance.

He backed that up with another defeat against Matteo Arnaldi in his opening match in Madrid before confirming he was pulling out of this week’s Rome Masters.

“You know, trying to win a match or two, not really thinking about getting far in the tournament. It’s a completely different feeling from what I had in 20-plus years of professional tennis, so it’s kind of a challenge for me mentally to really face this kind of sensation on the court, going out early now regularly in the tournaments.

“I guess, the circle of life and the career, eventually, it was going to happen. Now I’m trying to, you know, use this as a driving force for the future. Obviously, Grand Slams, I was saying many times, are the most important tournaments for me.

“Which doesn’t mean that I don’t want to win here, of course I wanted to, but Grand Slams are where I really want to play the best tennis. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do that in Roland Garros, but I’ll do my best.”

Djokovic has lost all four of the sets he has played on clay and his next match may be his opener at the French Open in Roland Garros.

Getting into the top four of the ATP Rankings would have ensured he avoided a match against world No 1 Jannik Sinner, No 2 Alexander Zverev and No 3 Carlos Alcaraz before the semi-finals in Paris.

Yet he now looks set to be out of those prized four positions and he could be in line for a slide in the rankings over the next couple of weeks.

Djokovic failed to protect his current position at No 5 in the ATP Rankings after his defeats in Monte Carlo and Madrid and Jack Draper overtook him in that position after his run to the Madrid Open final.

Now Djokovic is facing more threats in the rankings after he opted to pull out of the Italian Open this week.

Casper Ruud confirmed his status as one of the most dangerous players on clay courts when he won the Madrid Open and he is now closing in on Djokovic’s No 6 ranking as he returns to action in Rome.

World No 8 Alex de Minaur also has a chance to over take Djokovic in the rankings if he has a good run in Rome and so does Lorenzo Musetti.

While rankings are no longer a big concern for Djokovic, he will not want to drop out of the top eight of the ATP list, as that would set up the prospect of a match against one of the highest-ranked players in the men’s game as early as the round of 16 at Roland Garros.

Djokovic played Alcaraz at the quarter-final stage in the Australian Open and beat him impressively, but he would be keen to avoid an early meeting with the Spaniard or Sinner in Paris as he will be looking to get back into form after a shaky start to his clay court campaign.

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