World no. 1 Novak Djokovic has had quite the year. First, Djokovic endured a wild fiasco at the Australian Open when he was deported due to a problem with his visa as a result of his unvaccinated status against the COVID-19 virus. Then, the world no. 1 looked shaky in his return to the court at Dubai, as he suffered a straight-sets loss in
the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, Djokovic’s struggles continued at the Monte Carlo Masters, as he was defeated in the second round, losing 6-3 6-7 (7-5) 6-1 to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Djokovic spoke out after the upset loss, via Yahoo Sport.
“I didn’t like the way I felt physically in the third set. I just ran out of the gas completely. Just couldn’t really stay in the rally with him. If you can’t stay in the rally, not feeling your legs on the clay, it’s mission impossible.
“I’m going to look with my team into reasons why that was the case and go back to the drawing board and hopefully next week will be better in Belgrade.”
Still, there’s a feeling that Novak Djokovic is not yet in top shape with the French Open a little over a month away. If he can’t find such form, he’ll have an uphill battle towards adding to his Grand Slam trophy case at Roland Garros.
