For Novak Djokovic, it was a case of same story, different ending.
On Saturday, Djokovic marked his first appearance in Indian Wells since 2019 with a three-set victory over Aleksandar Vukic, a 27-year-old Australian who described the world No 1 as his “biggest idol”. Two days later, Djokovic’s bid for a sixth title in the California desert ended abruptly with a shock defeat to Luca Nardi, a 20-year-old Italian whose childhood bedroom is still adorned with a poster of the 24-time grand slam champion.
Playing his first event since the Australian Open, where he was beaten by Jannik Sinner for the third time in four months, Djokovic must be tiring of these youthful Italian arrivisti. The broader question is whether the 36-year-old is tiring in other ways, too. Three months into the season, Djokovic finds himself without a trophy, a novel position for a player who has grown accustomed to starting the year with glory at Melbourne Park.
Perhaps we should have known it would not be a night for the older generation when Bill Gates entered the stadium at a changeover only for the chair umpire, Greg Allensworth, to intone: “First available seat please.” For much of the first set, an unusually sluggish and erratic Djokovic seemed to take Allensworth at his word. Parked on his metaphorical recliner, the famously combative Serb was strangely unable to rouse himself, at one point even declining to chase a drop shot that appeared well within reach.
By then, Djokovic was already a break down, his game misfiring in ways rarely seen. Time and again, forehands went awry. Returns flew long. Consistency and precision, the traditional bedrock of his game, gave way to disorder. Instead, it was Nardi, a lucky loser ranked 123 in the world, who controlled the baseline exchanges, dictating play on serve, happy to trade blows with his boyhood hero until he could unleash his destructive forehand. As Djokovic observed afterwards, it was a perfect storm of poor play on his part and free-swinging inspiration from his gifted opponent.
“I watched him play, and I knew he possesses great quality tennis from the baseline, especially the forehand side,” said Djokovic after his 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 loss. “Moves well. Very talented. He got in as a lucky loser to the main draw, so he really didn’t have anything to lose, so he played great. Deserved to win.
“I was more surprised with my level. My level was really, really bad. That’s it, you know. These two things come together. He’s having a great day; I’m having a really bad day. Results as a negative outcome for me.”
Serving at deuce in the fifth game, Djokovic launched himself at a forehand down the line, both feet leaving the ground, a signature move that usually proves lethal. Not this time, the ball crashing into the bottom of the net and Djokovic momentarily losing his balance, falling forward in a tangle of arms, legs and racket. Break point down, the Serb embraced another of his go-to plays, directing a first serve down the centre to the ad court. It is a ploy he has used to escape countless tight corners, but once again his radar was off, the ball bouncing closer to the baseline than the service box. Moments later, Nardi nailed a forehand pass and he was on his way.
Djokovic is not given to making a drama out of a defeat; rather, he uses his rare setbacks as mental and emotional “fuel”, to borrow one of his favourite words. Witness his response to losing to Carlos Alcaraz in last summer’s Wimbledon final, a loss that he later said “pissed me off so much that I needed to win everything on American soil”. He did just that, of course, evening the score with Alcaraz in a classic Cincinnati final before winning the US Open.
What remains to be seen is whether Djokovic can maintain that extraordinary level of desire. Equalling Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 grand slam titles, as he did in New York, was the most significant accomplishment of his illustrious career. Can he summon the will to go again? Is there a point at which achievement trumps appetite? That was certainly the case in 2016, when Djokovic won at Roland Garros for the first time, completing a career grand slam, only to suffer a letdown at Wimbledon and the Rio Olympics.
“Winning the French Open has brought a lot of joy to me, but on the other hand [it] has taken away a lot from me, as well,” Djokovic, who would not win another major for two years, admitted later that season. “I felt a little bit exhausted, I must say, and maybe less motivated.”
Given that Djokovic followed his US Open victory with titles at the Paris Masters and ATP Finals, in the process securing the year-end No 1 ranking for a record-extending eighth time, it would be an overstatement to suggest history is repeating itself. All the same, he has not looked himself this season.
Having levelled at a set apiece against Nardi, few would have envisaged anything other than a Djokovic victory. That impression hardened when, in the face of a stubborn show of defiance from the Italian, he broke early in the decider. Normally, Djokovic is ruthless in such situations. But a remarkable lapse of focus as he served to consolidate the advantage proved costly, the Serb paying the price for stopping mid-point in response to a hesitant return of serve by Nardi, who thought the ball was out but sensibly played on.
Djokovic’s dithering cost him a break, and he argued long and loud with Allensworth at the ensuing changeover, wrongly insisting that Nardi should have been called for a hindrance. Even so, the expectation was that his sense of injustice, coupled with Nardi’s inexperience at this level, would propel Djokovic to victory, as it has done so often in the past. Instead, In the sixth game, he was broken again, errors compounding his inability to contain the Italian’s rampant ball-striking.
“I helped him play well, and I didn’t help myself at all,” said Djokovic. “I made some really terrible unforced errors. Just quite defensive tennis, not much on the ball in the third, and that’s it. He just stepped in and he used the time that he had. He was playing more free and more aggressive than I did, and going for his shots, and that break [at] 3-2 in the third was enough.”
Djokovic is entitled to a bad day, of course, but his inability to ignite the inner fire in those key moments was unusual. Then again, Indian Wells is not a major, no matter how much it may aspire to that status, and after 40 Masters 1000 wins, there must come a point at which motivation becomes an issue for the Serb. In many ways, Djokovic is a victim of his own success, so accustomed to winning that even he seems to have an exaggerated sense of his own plight.
“No titles this year,” mused Djokovic. “That’s not something I’m used to. I was starting the season most of my career with a grand slam win or, you know, Dubai win, or [another] tournament.
“It’s fine, it’s part of the sport. You just have to accept it. Some you win, some you lose. Hopefully, I’ll win some more and still keep going. I guess every trophy that eventually comes my way is going to be great, obviously to break the kind of negative cycle a little bit I’m having in the last three, four tournaments, where I haven’t really been close to my best.”
Three or four? Leaving aside the Davis Cup, Djokovic has won two of his past four events. It is not hard to imagine him making it three from five if the mood takes him at next week’s Miami Open. A lull could yet become something deeper, but we are not there yet.