Aug 4, 2024; Paris, France; Novak Djokovic (SRB) reacts after a point in the men’s singles gold medal match against Carlos Alcaraz (not pictured) during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Stade Roland Garros.

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Is This the Beginning of the End for Novak Djokovic: Analysis of His Monte Carlo Masters 2025 Loss

Tabilo improves record vs Djokovic to 2-0.

Chilean southpaw Alejandro Tabilo maintained his 100% record against Novak Djokovic on Wednesday, with a shocking 6-3 6-4 rout of the Serbian at the 2025 Monte Carlo Masters. A masterful performance from the 27-year-old was accompanied by a lacklustre outing for Djokovic, which eventually spelt doom for the 24-time Grand Slam champion at the Principality.

The loss means that Djokovic’s wait for the elusive 100th title prolongs further. ‘Nole’ came agonisingly close to the record at the recently concluded ATP Miami Masters, but stumbled at the last hurdle against Jakub Mensik. Now, Tabilo has ensured that the former World No. 1’s clay court season gets off to a rocky start.

Tabilo dominated the match from the beginning, and held his nerve in the crucial moments to prevent the match from going into a deciding set. He has extended his record to 2-0 against Djokovic – becoming only the third man after Marat Safin and Jiri Vesely not to lose a single encounter vs the legendary Serb (two matches or more).

Novak Djokovic Produces Below Par Tennis, Tabilo Pounces

As the players traded blows in the opening exchanges, it was Djokovic who made early inroads by breaking the left-hander in the very first game of the match. However, the momentum didn’t last long. Tabilo broke right back, and produced a Rafael Nadal-esque banana forehand pass to go up 2-1. He broke again in the sixth game, and outplayed Djokovic from the back of the court to take the opener 6-3. As the players sat down, the murmurs on Court Rainier III were possibly about the Djoker’s out of touch forehand.

It was more of the same story in the second set, as Djokovic failed to find his range whatsoever. He struck 29 unforced errors and won a mere 55% points on his serve – an uncannily low number for a champion player like him. The stunned silence from the crowd was occasionally broken by moments of magic from the World No. 5. However, failure to break back meant that Tabilo achieved another straight sets victory.

Djokovic has failed to win a single title in 2025, and has looked like a shadow of his former self. Apart from his Miami finals run, the 10-time Australian Open champion hasn’t made a major impact this season. With his fitness coming into question more often and fans getting to witness more errors than before, this could be the last stretch of the race. To make matters worse, there is a sense of acceptance of a drop in level by Djokovic himself.

Djokovic Provides Cryptic Hint at Possible Beginning of the End

Evaluating his own performance, Novak Djokovic was brutally honest in retrospect. “Not the best day. It was actually more like the worst day. I was hoping it was not going to happen, but it was quite a high probability I’m going to play this way. Just horrible, horrible feeling to play this way.” He went on to apologise to the fans for the performance.

Meanwhile, one man’s agony is another man’s ecstasy. “I was talking to my coach coming up here that we know how to play him,” Tabilo told Tennis Channel after his win. “We already beat him once. So the mental part – it’s not like it would be the first time if I have the chance to beat him. I was a little bit looser thanks to that.”

"We know how to play him. We already beat him once…I was a little bit looser thanks to that" 😌

Alejandro Tabilo explains how he took down Novak Djokovic at back-to-back clay 1000s #RolexMonteCarloMasters pic.twitter.com/xuoha4OVTm
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) April 9, 2025

Alejandro Tabilo will face Grigor Dimitrov in the Monte Carlo Masters 2025 Round of 16 on Thursday.

Alejandro Tabilo

ATP Masters 1000

ATP Monte Carlo Masters

Jakub Mensik

Miami Open

Novak Djokovic

Tennis

Sankalp Harikrishnan

A passionate sports fan through and through, I am currently pursuing my MA in Global Sports Journalism. I specialise in tennis and football writing at The Playoffs News, and I have prior experience working at EssentiallySports and Sportskeeda. Born and raised in Bengaluru, India, sport was my safe space right from my childhood. After trying my hand at multiple sports and representing my educational institutions in cricket, badminton and table tennis, I found sports media to be my calling.