The 2024 Italian Open will be remembered as the bottle tournament in Novak Djokovic’s career.
The harmless task of signing autographs turned terrifying when a water container fell from his backpack and hit him in the head.
The next day, he appeared outside the venue wearing a motorcycle helmet, smiling and laughing to the delight of his fans.
And in the end, Djokovic lost in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 to No. 29 seed Alejandro Tabilo on Sunday in the third round, where he was “like a completely different player” due to a head injury. Ta.
“It really hit me hard,” Djokovic told reporters about the incident. According to ESPN. “After that, I went to see a doctor and suffered from nausea, dizziness, and bleeding for about 30 minutes to an hour. I managed to sleep fine. I had a headache. The next day, or rather yesterday, the weather was pretty good. So I thought it was okay. Maybe it was okay, maybe it wasn’t.
“What I felt on the court today was like a completely different player stepped into my shoes. There was no rhythm, no tempo, no balance to any of the shots. That’s a little worrying.”
The match with Taviro (a 26-year-old player who won his first career ATP title at the Auckland Classic earlier this year) lasted just 68 minutes, and Djokovic committed five double faults, but never pushed Taviro to the brink. There was no. He crossed the break point and made 12 unforced errors.
According to ESPN, Djokovic has never been eliminated before the quarterfinals at the Italian Open, and none of his losses have been to players ranked outside the top 10.
He will be signing autographs for fans on Friday. Screen capture via X/@josemorgado
“It’s unbelievable,” Tabilo said, according to ESPN. “I came to the court just looking around, trying to absorb everything and process everything. I’m just trying to wake up.”
The disastrous tournament began with a straight-sets victory over Corentin Moutet in the round of 64 at Fort Italico.
As he left court, Djokovic stopped to sign autographs for fans, and after signing his hat and paper, a water bottle that had been in his backpack fell from its holder and hit the 36-year-old in the head.
He quickly covered his head and eventually crouched towards the ground.
According to the Associated Press, Djokovic did not require stitches despite bleeding to his head, and the Serbian tennis star wrote in a post on X that he was “fine” and icing at his hotel.
The tournament said in a statement Friday that the bottle “accidentally” hit Djokovic in the head.
He then arrived on Saturday wearing a motorcycle helmet, writing in another post: “I came today ready to go.”
Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam champion, lost in the semi-finals to Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open earlier this year, but has two weeks left until Roland Garros – Margaret Court and the Australian Open. It’s your last chance to line up – the start of the Grand Slam title record – begins.
But his resignation on Sunday was not necessarily encouraging.
“Everything needs to get better to at least have a chance to win,” Djokovic said of the French Open, according to ESPN.
