Novak Djokovic Stunned In Indian Wells, Records His Third Consecutive Loss
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Novak Djokovic exited the 2025 Indian Wells Open already in the second round. He lost his third consecutive match.
Djokovic doesn't lose matches too often, and he doesn't lose two matches in a row too often. One thing that is even more rare than that is the Serbian legend losing three matches in a row. In fact, Djokovic hasn't lost three matches in a row since 2018.
Back then, he famously lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open to Hyeon Chung, and then he also lost in his first matches at the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open.
This year, the 24-time Grand Slam champion came to the first ATP Masters 1000 tournament on a two-match losing streak. He lost to Alexander Zverev at the Australian Open (through a retirement) and he also lost to Matteo Berrettini in Doha.
In Indian Wells, his first opponent was giant-slayer Botic van de Zandschulp. The Dutch player recorded some very impressive wins in recent months. He famously beat Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open, and he was also the reason why Rafael Nadal's tennis career ended, as he was part of the deciding doubles match at the Davis Cup Finals.
With the experience from those matches, Van de Zandschulp certainly wasn't afraid to take on Djokovic. Although he lost to the Serbian in their only previous meeting, the Dutch player appeared to be in much better form this time around.
And that was very evident early in this match. Djokovic seemed to be somewhat rusty, and that was evidenced by him losing 13 consecutive points against the Dutch player, who is ranked 85th in the world.
In fact, since Djokovic won the first game of the match, his opponent won 21 of the following 24 points, which is just an incredible stat against someone like Djokovic. The Serbian player lost the first set 2-6.
He was able to regroup in the second set of this match and find a much higher level. The five-time Indian Wells Open champion won the second set 6-3, even though he lost his two-break advantage late in the set and feared for the result for a moment.
While it seemed that Djokovic finally steadied the ship and was ready to secure his third-round spot, that couldn't be further from the truth. He wasn't himself against in the third set.
On the other hand, Van de Zandschulp played at a great level, using every opportunity that he got. The Dutch player used two out of three break points chances that he had in the third set, and that was more than enough to win the match.
Djokovic lost the match 2-6, 6-3, 1-6, recording his third consecutive loss. He lost three consecutive matches for the first time in seven years, and the 37-year-old will certainly want to improve in Miami.
