Novak Djokovic admits suffering early-round losses at tournaments could become more frequent during the later stages of his career, but he still finds it hard to get used to.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion enters this week’s Geneva Open in Switzerland yet to win a Tour-level match on the clay this season. In Monte Carlo, he fell at the first hurdle to Alejandro Tabilo before suffering the same fate in Madrid against Matteo Arnaldi. Both of those losses were in straight sets.
Djokovic’s recent results are in stark contrast to those of earlier this season on hardcourts when he reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open before retiring from the tournament with an injury. A few weeks after that, he made it through to the final of the Miami Open but was denied the title by Czech rising star Jakub Mensik, who prevailed in two tightly-contested tiebreakers.
“It’s not an ideal situation,” Djokovic commented on his recent results during a press conference on Tuesday.
“This is a different chapter of my career that I’m trying to navigate. I’m not really used to these circumstances, with early-round defeats piling up. Even though I knew it would eventually happen.”
Geneva serves as Djokovic’s last chance of getting some wins under his belt ahead of the French Open, which will begin on Sunday. He is a two-time winner of the Grand Slam and has reached at least the quarter-final stage every year since 2010.
“I’m proud of everything I’ve achieved in my career, but I still have the desire to do everything I can to reach my best level, to win Grand Slam titles and beat the best players in the world,” the former world No.1 continued. “That’s why I’m here at the Geneva Open.”
Leading up to his return to competitive tennis, Djokovic announced the departure of Andy Murray from his team. Murray, who retired from the Tour at last summer’s Olympic Games, was coaching a player for the first time.
The high-profile partnership generated a surge of interest, but in the end, Djokovic admits things didn’t go how they both wanted them to.
“We felt like we couldn’t get more out of that partnership on the court, and that’s all there is to it,” he explained.
“My respect towards Andy remains the same, even more actually, I got to know him as a person.
“I think he has a brilliant tennis IQ, he has a very rare mind of a champion that obviously has achieved what he has achieved, and he sees the game incredibly well.”
Chasing after his 100th ATP trophy, Djokovic will begin his Geneva campaign against world No.134 Marton Fucsovics. Fucsovics is a former top 40 player and was a semi-finalist at a 250 event in Bucharest last month, which was played on clay.
If Djokovic is defeated, he will be on a four-match losing streak for only the second time in his career after 2007, when he suffered five defeats in a row.
