Novak Djokovic cut a disconsolate figure as he admitted he produced a ‘horrible’ performance in his defeat against Alejandro Tabilo at the Monte Carlo Masters, but he may reflect that he made a mistake by playing in the opening ATP 1000 Masters tournament of the clay court season.
After an impressive run to the Miami Open final that saw Djokovic play his best tennis since his memorable win at last year’s Olympic Games in Paris, it would have been understandable for the 24-time Grand Slam king to delay his return to European clay courts.
An appearance at the Madrid Open later this month or even the Rome Masters in early May might have been a natural moment for Djokovic to step onto the red dirt, but his new philosophy for 2025 saw him take up his entry in Monte Carlo.
Ranking points were up for grabs and getting into the top four of the ATP list could be important in his mission to win a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title at the French Open or Wimbledon over the next few weeks.
Yet it was clear that Djokovic was not ready to play in Monte Carlo and he confirmed as much in a brutally honest post-match press conference.
“It was actually more like the worst day,” said Djokovic. “Look, I was hoping this was not going to happen, but it was quite a high probability I’m going to play this way. I don’t know, just horrible. Horrible feeling to play this way and I’m just sorry for all the people who had to witness this.
“I expected myself at least to have put in a decent performance. Not like this, I mean this is horrible. I did not have high expectations, really. I knew I was gonna have a tough opponent and I knew I was gonna probably play pretty bad. But this bad… I didn’t expect.”
Djokovic confirmed his only focus during the European clay court season is the French Open at Roland Garros and that said all we needed to know about his motivation to play in Monte Carlo.
It may be that Djokovic is expecting this to be his final year on the ATP Tour and he is keen to play as many tournaments as possible for one last time, but he must now be reflecting that he made the wrong call by playing in Monte Carlo.
There were big questions over Djokovic’s future in tennis last year as he openly admitted he was not motivated to play in regular tour events, but that mindset appears to have shifted this year as he has played in more events than expected, including an appearance in a tournament in Qatar.
Finding a balance between playing enough matches to stay in shape and not overplaying is a tough task when you are approaching your 38th birthday, with former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash telling Tennis365 that Djokovic may have got it wrong last year.
“Older players fall into this trap every time that they are trying to save their body and they don’t always get a good balance on playing enough matches,” Cash told Tennis365.
“You tend to see older players start to lose five-set matches or have more bad days and that’s natural.
“That’s match toughness. I know Novak has played a lot of matches over the course of his career, but he still needs to be match-tough going into a best-of-five-set Grand Slam tournament.
“We often say you can’t afford to get into tough five-set matches in the first week of a Slam as you need to stay fresh and that’s especially true when you get older.
“If you don’t have enough matches under your belt and you play a long one early on, I tell you what, you are going to be so sore.
“That’s the big secret for Novak. If he can get his schedule right and make sure he has the right number of matches under his belt, he can win again.”
Djokovic was not ready to play in Monte Carlo and didn’t need to put himself through the trauma of losing for a second successive match against Tabilo, so don’t be surprised if the most successful male tennis player of all-time opts to take some time away from competitive action now as he plots his French Open masterplan.
