JAKARTA - The 2023 Monter Carlo Masters tennis tournament came as a surprise. Top seed, Novak Djokovic, fell in the round of 16.
The Serbian tennis player gave up 6-4, 5-7, 4-6 from Lorenzo Musetti on Thursday local time or Friday morning WIB.
World number one Djokovic, a two-time winner in Monte Carlo in 2013 and 2015, struggled with his service which was broken eight times before losing. With this defeat, Djokovic has not surpassed the top eight in Monte Carlo since 2015.
"Poor feeling after playing like this, to be honest. But congratulations to him. He remains strong at important times," Djokovic said, as broadcast by AFP via Antara, Friday.
"I don't think it's a disaster, but I have a bad feeling right now because I lost the game. It's not a fun day for me, so I'm not in the mood to talk," he continued.
Jokovic led a set and a break against Musetti, but the young Italian came back in the second set and then won in the deciding set after the rain had stopped the game for an hour.
Musetti, ranked 21, advanced to the quarter-finals against compatriot Jannik Sinner, who secured a match point before beating Poland's Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-1.
Djokovic, who is predicted to have a great chance of winning following the absence of Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, 5-2 ahead in the opening set. He lost service as he tried to close the set before breaking Musetti's serve for the third time.
The top seed was again seen to be in control of 4-2 in the second set, but his game began to wobble when he looked unhappy over a failed line call request.
Musetti won the next three games, successfully serving for the second set on a second try after wasting his chances while leading 5-4.
Heavy rain at the start of the decisive set forced the match to stop. Musetti then made a decision break to lead 5-3, and finally secured victory at its fourth match point.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
