Former Swedish tennis participant Mats Wilander has dismissed any notion of fear about 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic’s kind after the world No.1 was shocked by fortunate loser Luca Nardi within the third spherical of Indian Wells.
The 20-12 months-outdated Italian, Luca Nardi, who entered the Paribas Open primary draw as a fortunate loser, shocked the World No.1 Djokovic in 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and 17 minutes within the third spherical.
At No.123 on the earth, Nardi grew to become the bottom-ranked participant to beat Djokovic on the Masters 1000 or Grand Slam stage, because the Serbian suffered his third loss of the season following defeats to Alex de Minaur on the United Cup and Jannik Sinner within the Australian Open semifinals.
“Novak Djokovic doesn’t really care when he loses in the smaller tournaments,” Wilander informed Eurosport. “I mean, he would like to win every tournament, he’d like to win every match. But I do think that sometimes these days he goes on a trip just to test himself.
“‘How good has my practice been back home?’ or wherever he’s been practicing, and then he gets to a tournament and he’s playing the other pros, the best players in the world, and he realises after he wins a round or two or three or whatever the result is, I think he realises, ‘oh okay, I’m close enough, I don’t need to be any better at this particular moment’.
Djokovic saw his 11-match winning streak at ATP Masters 1000s snapped following his title runs in Cincinnati and Paris. Wilander emphasising off-season for Djokovic said that the Serbian will be at his best in the French Open. “‘The French Open is two months away and that’s when I need to be at my best for the French, for Wimbledon’, and then you push through and hope for the Olympics.
Djokovic pulled back his name from the Miami Open stating on X, “At this stage of my career, I’m balancing my private and professional schedule”. “But proper now, in phrases of competitors, it’s a little bit of an off-season. It could be nice to win the Sunshine Double once more for Novak Djokovic, however he’s not even taking part in in Miami.
“So principally, it’s a (case of) getting a pair of matches, perceive that he’s very shut, ‘I’m going to go residence, I’m going to follow once more after which I’ll be prepared for the following match’.
“But I’m not fearful. I used to be all the time fearful about Novak successful an excessive amount of and I believe the previous couple of years he hasn’t gained an excessive amount of on tour, which is why he’s successful so many Grand Slam tournaments as a result of he’s recent. I don’t assume it issues.
