Novak Djokovic admits it is ‘not a great season at all’ so far after Monte Carlo Masters exit
Novak Djokovic has reflected on his season so far, with the world No.1 admitting that he is ‘disappointed’ after losing in the Monte Carlo Masters semi-final.
Djokovic had achieved his best result at the Monte Carlo Masters since 2015 this week, but the Serbian’s run came to an end at the hands of Casper Ruud yesterday, losing 4-6 6-1 4-6.
This was Djokovic’s fourth defeat of 2024 so far, with the 36-year-old admitting that it has been a relatively poor season by his standards, “I’m used to really high standard in terms of expectations of the results, so not having a title is, maybe comparing to the last 15 years, not a great season at all.”
He continued, “But I had semis of Australia, semis here. I only played three tournaments this year, so of course, you know, it’s normal to expect that you have some seasons where you don’t start well, and this is the one.
“Hopefully, yeah, I can pick up, in terms of results, I can build from here, because, you know, I played some good tennis. Hopefully in the next tournaments I’ll be able to play even better.”
Djokovic had come from a break down in the deciding set to recover from 1-4 to 4-4, but was broken in the final game of the match and hit a double fault to seal his fate.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion reflected on missed opportunities after the match and admitted that Ruud ‘deserved to win’, “Of course, I’m disappointed, you know, to lose a match like this. I had my chances, but yeah, last game was not great. Unforced errors and just he was solid I think until the last shot and deserved to win. My game was kind of up and down.
“I mean, the positive thing is that I kind of managed to come back after losing the first set and really find the strength in the game. So, there are positives to take away from this tournament, for sure, but of course disappointed with the loss.”
Never easy to take the L. Well done Casper.???? Onwards… #RolexMonteCarloMasters pic.twitter.com/pXsKJqlhcO
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) April 13, 2024
Djokovic will now take a week off, before returning to competitive clay court action at the Madrid Masters.
Inside the baseline…
It is a weird situation for Novak Djokovic, who admitted that he did not have high hopes for the tournament after poor results in recent years at the Monte Carlo Masters. However, when Djokovic reaches the latter stages of any tournament he is thinking about becoming the champion, because that is what the Serbian is so used to. Although Djokovic has admitted it has been a poor season so far by his standards, the world No.1 has still reached semi-finals at both the Australian Open and now at the Monte Carlo Masters so it is far from a crisis.
READ MORE: Casper Ruud reveals he is ‘in a state of shock’ after beating Novak Djokovic for the first time
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