First defeat in Monte Carlo: Djoković fails his comeback match

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Novak Djokovic

Photo: Daniel Cole/AP

World number one Novak Djokovic has failed to return to the tennis tour.

In Monte Carlo, the Serb surprisingly lost against the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in three sets 3: 6, 7: 6 (7: 5), 1: 6 and was eliminated in his opening match.

In the first round, the top seed had a bye.

In his first match since the quarterfinals in Dubai at the end of February, the 20-time Grand Slam tournament winner was far from his top form.

With 45 unforced errors, the number one in the world presented itself far too error-prone.

Nine times he was ranked 46th in the world.

Davidovich Fokina taking the serve.

After losing the first set, Djoković was twice behind with a break in the back and forth in the second section.

Although the favorite then saved himself in the decisive third set, he couldn't turn the game around.

On the contrary: The set went to the Spaniard without much resistance, after 2:54 hours the game was over.

"It will take some time and some matches to really get going," Djokovic had previously admitted.

"The past four or five months have been really challenging for me, mentally and emotionally." Due to the lack of vaccination against the corona virus, Djokovic was not allowed to take part in the hard court tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami in the USA.

He was unable to start at the Australian Open at the beginning of the season and had to leave Melbourne again in January after a legal tug of war.

His only tournament before Monte Carlo this year was in Dubai.

In Monte Carlo, after Djoković's exit, German Alexander Zverev is the highest-ranked player in the field.

The Olympic champion takes on Argentinian Federico Delbonis on Wednesday.

cev/dpa