World number one Novak Djokovic suffered an unexpected defeat in Indian Wells

At the BNP Paribas Open, an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournament in the Masters 1000 category with a prize fund of $9.5 million taking place in Indian Wells, America, the main sensation of the current season happened. The leader of the world classification, Serbian Novak Djokovic, lost in three games in the 1/16 finals to 20-year-old Italian Luca Nardi, who ranks only 123rd in the ATP rankings. This is Djokovic’s first defeat from an opponent with the status of a lucky loser, that is, one who did not qualify and entered the main draw at the last moment. True, despite this failure, the famous Serb will retain first place.

The fiasco that was waiting Novak Djokovic in the third round match of the BNP Paribas Open against Luca Nardi, at first glance looks highly unexpected. After all, the leader of world tennis lost to an opponent little known even to advanced specialists – there was simply no particular reason to closely monitor him before. Yes, last season Nardi was among the participants in the Next Gen ATP Finals, the final competition for tennis players under 21 years of age, which was held for the first time in Saudi Arabia. But this, of course, could not be considered a breakthrough, especially since he lost two out of three matches in this tournament. The 20-year-old Italian also has five wins and two finals in Challengers, lower-level professional tournaments. This is a good, but fairly standard set of achievements for a young tennis player of his level.

And suddenly – a victory over Djokovic himself, whose portrait Nardi hung in his bedroom at the age of eight. The result of the match was 6:4, 3:6, 6:3, it lasted 2 hours 20 minutes.

It seems difficult to find an explanation for such a sensation, but, of course, there is one. The fact is that the tournament in Indian Wells has not been considered successful for the tennis king for a very long time. Yes, at one time he took five titles on it, but the last time this happened a long time ago, in 2017. After that, long before the finals, Djokovic was inferior to the talented Australian Nick Kyrgios, the German middle man Philipp Kohlschreiber and even the Japanese Taro Daniel, who at the time of their meeting in 2018 was only 109th in the ranking. Of course, the Serb himself was not the first, but only the 13th racket in the world, but this does not change the essence of the matter. Indian Wells’ extremely slow courts and very specific balls, which many tournament participants complain about, combined with constant wind and very dry air, are not the best for Djokovic. In addition, due to the lack of a coronavirus vaccination, he was not able to come to the tournament in Indian Wells for three years in a row and was probably unaccustomed to its non-standard conditions. It is no coincidence that Saturday’s opening match of the Serbian tennis player against the Australian Aleksandar Vukic was also very difficult.

Theoretically, Luca Nardi could be replaced by another tennis player who is in fighting shape and has the ability to hit the ball without feeling much psychological pressure.

Another thing is that Djokovic is at the final stage of his career and any defeat is considered from the point of view of a potential loss of first place.

By the way, the Serb has been occupying it for the 416th week, that is, a total of exactly eight years. There is no threat to Djokovic’s leadership in March. After Indian Wells, in the worst case scenario, the gap from his closest pursuer, who could be Jannik Sinner instead of last year’s BNP Paribas Open champion Carlos Alcaraz, will be 815 points. Next on the calendar is a similar Masters 1000 tournament in Miami, but it is too early to speculate on what the situation will be at the top of the rankings on April 1, the day after its finish. Much depends on how well Sinner and Alcaraz perform this week. Their next matches took place on the night from Tuesday to Wednesday after this issue was signed for publication.

As for the upper half of the BNP Paribas Open draw, Djokovic’s defeat, of course, significantly changed the balance of power. The main favorite there was last year’s finalist Daniil Medvedev, who, in a bitter struggle, converted nine break points out of 22, and defeated a very uncomfortable opponent in three games, American Sebastian Korda, 6:4, 5:7, 6:3. However, whether the Russian will be able to reach the final is not yet obvious. In the 1/8 finals he will have a difficult match with the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, for whom the Indian Wells conditions are more suitable. The winner of this pair will meet with the Dane Holger Rune or the American Taylor Fritz, and in the semi-finals, Medvedev’s potential opponents, in addition to Luca Nardi, include the US representative Tommy Paul, who is now playing with the Italian, the Norwegian Casper Ruud and the Frenchman Gael Monfils.

Evgeniy Fedyakov