Novak Djokovic suffered a straight-sets defeat to Alejandro Tabilo, while Carlos Alcaraz shrugged off an early scare to progress at the Monte-Carlo Masters.
Chile’s Tabilo handed Djokovic an unexpected 6-3 6-4 defeat on the clay court.
Although Djokovic expertly broke Tabilo in the first game of the match, Tabilo responded well grabbing three break points in the next game and converting the third.
Tabilo broke Djokovic for a second time in the sixth game, putting him in control of the set. Errors haunted Djokovic’s play and Tabilo held firm to win that first set.
Djokovic sought to fight back in the next, but squandered further opportunities to break back before Tabilo secured the crucial break and was able to then serve out the second set.
‘It was horrible’ – Djokovic apologies
“I expected myself at least to have put in a decent performance. Not like this. It was horrible,” Djokovic said.
“I knew I’m going to have a tough opponent and I knew I’m going to probably play pretty bad. But this bad, I didn’t expect.
“A horrible feeling to play this way, and just sorry for all the people that have to witness this.”
In his courtside interview, Tabilo said: “I just tried to remember what I did well last time [against him]. Thankfully I served well and it helped me a lot. It was an unreal match.”
Tabilo will next face 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov, who recovered from a set down against wild card Valentin Vacherot to claim a 4-6 6-3 6-1 victory.
