Novak Djokovic’s start to the season has been very different from expectations. It is true that the Serbian legend reached the semifinals at the 2025 Australian Open – after achieving a titanic feat against Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals – but he had a new injury that forced him to retire during his match against Alexander Zverev.
In addition, in the other three tournaments played in 2025 his results have been really disappointing. The former world number 1 stopped in the quarterfinals at the Brisbane International losing to Reilly Opelka, while at the Doha ATP 500 his run immediately ended against Matteo Berrettini.
Everyone thought that Nole would redeem himself in the first Masters 1000 of the season – the ‘BNP Paribas Open’ in Indian Wells (where he triumphed five times in his career) – instead came another very surprising defeat.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion lost in three sets to Botic van de Zandschulp, who is capable of playing excellent tennis on hard courts but who had lost to Matteo Gigante in qualifying.
Despite being quite motivated and having the support of Andy Murray in his box, the 37-year-old from Belgrade never found the right feeling with his shots in these conditions and made almost 40 unforced errors.
Novak was disastrous especially in the first and third sets, while a drop in the Dutch ace had allowed him to get back into the game in the second set despite not having done anything exceptional.
Djokovic disappoints again
For the second time in a row in California, the Serbian was defeated by a lucky loser, considering that he had lost to Luca Nardi last year.
The current world number 7 did not want to look for excuses during his press conference and admitted that his performance was horrible.
The most likely hypothesis is that Djokovic will stay here to practice and then move to Miami, where the second Masters 1000 of the season is scheduled from March 19.
The ace from Belgrade has not played in Florida since 2019.
Tennis World USA