Novak Djokovic Apologizes For 'Horrible' Performance During Monte Carlo Loss
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Novak Djokovic was visibly furious with how he played during his 2025 Monte-Carlo Masters defeat to the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo when he spoke to the media afterward.
Although Tabilo deserves credit for his performance, Djokovic's display was among the worst seen from him in recent memory. He made a massive number of unforced errors during the 3-6, 4-6 defeat.
Djokovic's forehand caused him the most issues. Some of the basic errors from that side left fans audibly gasping, and it would have been challenging for the Serbian to win with that defect even if the rest of his game flowed.
In his press conference after the match, Djokovic stunningly revealed that he knew playing so badly was highly likely. He also apologized to the fans who bought tickets in the hope of seeing him in full flight.
"It was actually more like the worst day. Look… I was hoping it was not going to happen. But it was quite a high probability I'm going to play this way. Just horrible. Horrible feeling to play this way... and I’m just sorry for all the people that have to witness this."
Djokovic's bad mood became obvious based on how short his answers were from that point. When asked for an explanation for the terrible performance, the tennis legend shockingly said he did not care.
"I don't know. I don't have it. I have it and I don't have it. I don't really care."
The 24-time Grand Slam champion did not blank questions, but the next few answers were not more than a few words. He confirmed his eye issue from the 2025 Miami Open was now fine and also said Roland Garros was his only goal for the clay court swing.
Djokovic went into slightly more detail in the final question. Although the 2013 and 2015 Monte-Carlo Masters champion did not have high expectations for the tournament, he did not expect to play so atrociously.
"Well, I expected myself at least to have put in a decent performance. Not like this. It was horrible. I did not have high expectations, really. I knew I was gonna have a tough opponent, and I'm gonna probably play pretty bad. But this bad... I didn't expect."
It is not clear from Djokovic's comments why he thought playing poorly was likely to happen. Some may think it could have been due to the match being his first on clay this year, an adjustment many players find difficult.
Djokovic's record in Monte-Carlo since his last title in 2015 shows that the transition from hard to clay is challenging. Last year's run to the semifinal is the only time he has been that far since 2015.
The Serbian may also have been impacted by his coach and former rival Andy Murray's absence in Monte-Carlo. Djokovic has now failed to win a match at his last two tournaments without the Briton.
By contrast, with Murray in his team, Djokovic reached the 2025 Miami Open final and the 2025 Australian Open semifinal (retiring after the first set against Alexander Zverev). Djokovic has spoken about Murray's positive impact since their collaboration began.
