"In no moment was I like I can win this" - Alejandro Tabilo on beating Novak Djokovic to create history at Italian Open 2024
Novak Djokovic faced a shock defeat against Alejandro Tabilo in the third round of the Italian Open 2024. Tabilo admitted that he surprised himself with the win over the Serbian.
Djokovic defeated Corentin Moutet in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 to begin his Italian Open campaign in the second round. On the other hand, Tabilo defeated Yannick Hanfamann 6-3, 7-6 (4) to advance to the third round and set up a clash against Djokovic.
The World No. 1 did not look like his usual self as he dropped his serve twice to go 0-4 down in the first set. Djokovic could not recover and lost the first set 2-6. In the second set, the Serb dropped his first service game which eventually led to a 3-6 loss.
Djokovic committed five double faults and made 12 unforced errors in his unexpected loss against Tabilo. The Chilean, on the other hand, capitalized on all the errors and kept pushing forward to earn a historic win.
Tabilo became the first-ever Chilean to beat a World No. 1. After the match, he was asked at what point he thought he could win the match. The 29th seed admitted that at no point did he think he could win.
"Honestly in no moment was I like, Okay, I can win this," said Tabilo.
Further, he explained that he was happy with his first set performance but always worried that it could go into a decider.
"After the first set, I was pretty happy. I was playing incredible tennis. Just wanted to keep that level. With Novak, it's always so tough with the physical side. I knew perfectly it could go for a third set in any moment," he said.
Tabilo tried to take the match point by point and made himself believe that every point was the start of the match. This helped his overall game.
Alejandro Tabilo admits the first four consecutive game wins helped him focus more to attain a win over Novak Djokovic
Alejandro Tabilo believes the flurry of consecutive wins in the first four games helped him concentrate more throughout the match and get the job done.
"Yeah, I mean, at the beginning I was just thinking I'm playing unreal right now. Hopefully I can keep this up for the entire match. I think that's what made me very, like, concentrated and not give so many loose points," he said during the press conference.
Novak Djokovic will now enter the French Open 2024 with no final appearance in the four ATP tour events he has taken part in this year.
Tabilo will take on 16th seed Karen Khachanov on Tuesday, May 14, in the fourth round of the Italian Open.