'Something was going on in his life': Djokovic's opponent on uncharacteristic 2016 Wimbledon upset
NewsSunday, 23 November 2025 at 19:45
Novak Djokovic is broadly considered the greatest player in tennis history, but even he has endured mentally fragile moments. One of those times occurred at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships against Sam Querrey.
Heading into that iteration of Wimbledon, Djokovic had utterly dominated men's tennis, winning the last four Grand Slams and five of the previous six. His only loss at a Major since the start of 2015 was to an inspired Stan Wawrinka in the 2015 French Open final.
That meant the Serbian started the 2016 edition at SW19 as an overwhelming favorite. He began with routine victories against James Ward and Adrian Mannarino, setting up a third-round clash against Querrey.
Tennis fans worldwide were left stunned when Djokovic was defeated 6-7, 1-6, 6-3, 6-7 by the American. It remains one of the most significant upsets of the former ATP world No. 1's career, especially since he had been dominating.
Querrey spoke about the match on the Nothing Major Podcast, responding to Djokovic's discussion of it during his appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored. He read out a quote from the tennis legend about a rain delay after the third set.
"He mentioned it in that Piers Morgan interview, saying, 'I was two sets to love down, I won the third set, gained momentum, felt better about being on the court, there was another rain delay, and I went back to the isolated room at Wimbledon on court one.'"
"If there's a rain delay, they have these little tiny, like it's almost like a doctor's waiting room right inside the tunnel that you would sit in if it looks like the rain delay is only going to be less than 30 minutes."
Querrey then provided another quote from Djokovic about the match, which demonstrated that he was not in an optimal place. The pre-match underdog could tell at the time that he was not himself.
"Uh, back to Novak. His team comes in, and he's like, 'Guys, you have to leave me alone. I want to be by myself. I don't want to talk. I left the bags. Everything, I didn't even want to drink anything.' He said he just stared at the wall for 20 to 30 minutes, and it was the first time he felt empty."
"So, like something was going on in his life. And obviously, when I was playing him, I didn't know what was going on. I still don't know what was going on necessarily, but you could tell when we were playing that he wasn't the normal Novak."
That match marked the start of a more challenging period for Djokovic. He did not win another Grand Slam until the 2018 Wimbledon Championships, and 2017 was the worst full season of his professional career. How he came from that to dominate again was a terrific effort.
Djokovic gave several interesting insights during the interview with Piers Morgan, including the red flags he sees in Jannik Sinner's controversial doping case. Although he does not think Sinner deliberately doped, Djokovic remains unhappy about the case's handling.
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