Novak Djokovic's return to Indian Wells wasn't smooth, but he should be better in his second match against Luca Nardi.
Djokovic started his first Indian Wells campaign in five years with a win. It wasn't an easy win but a hard-fought one, requiring three sets of tennis and over two hours on the tennis court.
It was a competitive match, albeit not the best he could have played, but that's the beauty of being great—you can get away with below average matches.
He should try his best to avoid that against Luca Nardi because the Italian does seem to present a more serious threat than Aleksandar Vukic.
For starters, he's in better form right now, even though it's arguable whether he's actually a better player than Vukic. In any case, the Serbian is expected to be better, so let's see just how much better he will be.
Djokovic and Nardi never played against each other on the ATP Tour, which isn't a problem for the Serbian. He's seen the Nardi prototype often over the years, and he should pretty quickly know how to counter his style of play best.
The Italian isn't the best player on slower, hard courts because much of his success centers around his serve.
He can play well on it, but he'll need a really strong serving performance and near-perfect play from the baseline. I suspect Djokovic will likely extend rallies long enough to wear down the Italian and force mistakes.
| Novak Djokovic | Luca Nardi | |
| 0 | H2H | 0 |
| 1 | Rank | 123 |
| 36 | Age | 20 |
| 7-2 | 2024 W/L | 2-0 |
| 1094-215 | Career W/L | 3-12 |
The likelihood of Djokovic winning this match in straight sets is very high. The Serbian is just that much of a better player, and even in this rusty iteration, he will have more than enough to cruise in the matchup. Nardi lacks some of the power Vukic had, and that's going to be his undoing.
Prediction: Novak Djokovic to win in two sets.