Novak Djokovic was eliminated on his debut in the prestigious Doha ATP 500, confirming that he struggles a lot to play his best tennis in second-tier tournaments.
The Serbian legend was playing his first tournament since injuring his left thigh at the 2025 Australian Open and has shown that he is still a long way from top form.
The former world number 1 played a good first set against Matteo Berrettini – whom he had always defeated in the four matches – but the Italian ace’s serve and forehand made the difference in the tiebreak.
The gap between the two players increased in the second set, in which Matteo played with enormous confidence and took advantage of Nole’s drop to prevail quite comfortably.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion confided that he did not feel any pain in his thigh during the match and congratulated the 2021 Wimbledon finalist, who needed this victory after the difficulties of the beginning of the season.
Djokovic no longer wins
Djokovic – on the other hand – continues to have to postpone the 100th title of his legendary career. It’s been 465 days since the Serbian lifted his last ATP trophy, not forgetting his resounding victory at the Paris Olympics last summer.
Novak has not prevailed on the ATP tour since November 2023, when he won the Nitto ATP Finals for the seventh time in his career by defeating Jannik Sinner in Turin.
As time goes by, it is increasingly unlikely that the 37-year-old from Belgrade will be able to equal and surpass the 109 titles won by Jimmy Connors. Djokovic will try to reach at least Roger Federer, who stopped at 103 titles.
Nole’s next tournament will be the Indian Wells Masters 1000 in early March. The former world No. 1 didn’t play well in California last year, when he was defeated by young Italian Luca Nardi after one of the worst performances of his entire career.
That defeat marked the end of his collaboration with Goran Ivanisevic.
Tennis World USA