Novak Djokovic is out of the 2024 Italian Open after getting crushed by Alejandro Tabilo in two fairly simple sets.
The Serbian hasn't played well this year, and as worrying as it is, it's not getting any better. In fact, his best event was the Australian Open, where he seemingly looked like himself for a minute.
He lost to Jannik Sinner in straight sets, and he never looked like himself again. This match was a particularly troubling one because he struggled a lot. The score itself is pretty damning, but he really struggled in Rome.
Tabilo has been playing on a really high level recently, winning an ATP Challenger event last week. He's an aggressive baseliner who isn't really afraid to take it to his opponent and he did that in this match.
Obviously, Djokovic greatly helped because he didn't serve well in the first set, and that was troublesome because the Chilean wasn't afraid to step onto the court and attack him.
The Chilean won the opening set 6-2 simply by outhitting Djokovic from the baseline. This was largely made possible by the Serbian hitting only 46% of his first serves, but it didn't really change in the second set.
Tabilo broke early in the second set to take a 2-0 lead, and Djokovic never really pushed him to force a break back. These events don't matter as much to him, but he's not losing these matches because he wants to lose them.
The 36-year-old was just unable to come back and he was clearly not feeling it, but we don't really know whether it was just a bad day or if he was struggling with some sort of physical problem.
It was another disappointing loss for Djokovic, who has five losses this year already. The final score was 6-2, 6-3 for Tabilo.
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