{"id":39777,"date":"2025-04-10T02:36:43","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T02:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=39777"},"modified":"2025-04-10T02:36:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T02:36:43","slug":"novak-djokovic-says-sorry-as-he-delivers-brutal-verdict-on-monte-carlo-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=39777","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic says ‘sorry’ as he delivers brutal verdict on Monte Carlo exit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Novak<\/figure>\n

Novak Djokovic reacts during his match<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic apologised to everyone who had to \u201cwitness\u201d his Monte Carlo Masters contest against Alejandro Tabilo after a surprise defeat to the world No 32.<\/p>\n

In his first clay-court match of the season, third seed and world No 5 Djokovic was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Tabilo \u2013 a man who had held a underwhelming 3-9 record for 2025 until beating the Serbian.<\/p>\n

The Chilean had previously beaten Djokovic in Rome, and is now one of just three men to have played multiple matches against Djokovic without tasting defeat.<\/p>\n

Defeat for the 24-time Grand Slam champion extended a poor run in Monte Carlo, with Djokovic having failed to reach the final since winning the title for a second time in 2015.<\/p>\n

It also means that the 37-year-old will lose 390 points after failing to match his semi-final run from 2024, putting his hopes of a top-four seeding at the French Open in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Djokovic came into Monte Carlo off the back of a good run at the Miami Open two weeks ago, having reached his first final of the season in Florida.<\/p>\n

Many had backed the Serbian to triumph in Monte Carlo ahead of the tournament, though Djokovic admitted pre-event that a lingering eye infection was impacting his form.<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic News<\/h2>\n

Novak Djokovic suffers blow in French Open seed race with\u00a0shocking Monte Carlo loss<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic\u2019s prize money comments questioned as \u2018bigger picture\u2019 may be the primary focus<\/p>\n

And, in a damning assessment of his performance against Tabilo, the 37-year-old claimed that he had failed to meet his already low pre-tournament expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expected myself at least to have put in a decent performance. Not like this. It was horrible,\u201d Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not have high expectations. I knew I\u2019m going to have a tough opponent and I knew I\u2019m going to probably play pretty bad. But this bad, I didn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping it was not going to happen, but it was quite a high probability I\u2019m going to play this way. I don\u2019t know. [It was] just horrible.<\/p>\n

\u201cA horrible feeling to play this way, and just sorry for all the people that have to witness this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victory for Tabilo follows a battling three-set win over Stan Wawrinka in the opening round, and represents the first time he has recorded back-to-back wins this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a tough year,\u201d said Tabilo. \u201cSo the nerves were there a bit. I tried to remember what I did well last time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank God I served well today. It helped me a lot to regroup my game after that first game. It was an unreal match I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chilean, who has a career-high ranking of 19th, will next face 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov.<\/p>\n

Bulgarian star Dimitrov battled from a set down to beat wildcard Valentin Vacherot 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Read Next<\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0The 3 men to hold a 2-0 record over Novak Djokovic: Alejandro Tabilo joins exclusive club<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic slammed his “horrible” Monte Carlo Masters performances after a shock opening-match loss to Alejandro Tabilo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis"],"yoast_head":"\nNovak Djokovic says 'sorry' as he delivers brutal verdict on Monte Carlo exit - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=39777\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Novak Djokovic says 'sorry' as he delivers brutal verdict on Monte Carlo exit - 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