Surprising losses have become almost a habit for Novak Djokovic over the past year and a half. The Serbian legend who injured his left thigh during the 2025 Australian Open looked set to achieve a prestigious result at the 'BNP Paribas Open' in Indian Wells, a tournament where he had lifted the trophy five times during his amazingcareer.
No one thought that the former world number 1 could do worse than last year, when he was eliminated by the young Italian Luca Nardi in the third round.
The 37-year-old from Belgrade had said that he felt very good and had practiced in the right way together with Andy Murray, but the conditions on the 'Stadium 1' totally surprised him and his performance against Botic van de Zandschulp was negative from all points of view.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion made almost 40 unforced errors in three sets and never found a minimum of confidence during the match, despite Andy Murray supporting him on more than one occasion by inviting him to maintain a positive attitude.
Vandeweghe opens up on Nole
The feeling is that Nole's current vulnerability is also perceived by his rivals, who play with maximum commitment against him and know they have a chance to do the feat.
Speaking on Tennis Channel, former world number 9 Coco Vandeweghe analyzed in detail the hard moment Novak is going through: We have to give Botic some credit, he showed up, he played big ball and you have to give the man credit where credit is due.
But I do think is this Novak getting too comfortable with Im okay with losing. Its a weird feeling as a player when you have a couple of losses like that where you see him in the press room and he is a little bit too smiley and you have to think Is he not as mentally tough as he once was?
We know Novak is looking at Slams and are we getting a little too comfortable and maybe that will happen at Slams.
