On April 12, Beijing time, the ATP Masters Monte Carlo station, Djokovic clay season debut, against Spanish clay star Falkina, the whole game is sluggish, 3-6, 7-6, 1-6 defeat to Falkina, but due to Prime Minister Medvedev undergoing hernia surgery, Djokovic ensured that after this week will continue to stay in the world's number one position.
It is worth mentioning that this is also the first time that Falkina has defeated the world's no. 1 player.
After a lapse of 47 days, Djokovic played again to make his clay season debut, which was Djokovic's fourth game this year, and after experiencing the twists and turns of the Australian Open season and the downturn in West Asian competitions, Djokovic finally returned to Europe and started the clay season.
After the start of the game, Djokovic was in poor form, failed to establish his own effective scoring system, and soon fell behind 1-4. After catching up with two sets, Djokovic lost again, with 8 winning points in the first set and 16 unforced errors, breaking three sets in the first set, scoring only 48% and 42% of the first and second serves, and the first set was 3-6.
After the start of the second set, Djokovic's unforced error rate remained high, and after being broken first, he missed five consecutive break points in the third set, and fell behind 0-3 at the beginning. The two sides then fell into a mutual break-break war, Djokovic wasted the opportunity to equalize the big score on the serve to win the set, the game went to grab seven, and Djokovic magically won a 7-5 set.
After coming to the third set, Djokovic suddenly slipped in form, was broken three sets, and quickly lost the game 1-6.
Since it was the first game of Djokovic after a gap of nearly 50 days, and it was also the first game on clay, Djokovic was obviously incompetent, and the performance of the whole game was far below the standard, and some absurd mistakes made people shake their heads. Whether it is a serve, a front and backhand, or a small ball interception, there are a lot of unforced mistakes. As the saying goes, the fist is afraid of the young, and in the confrontation with Falkina, Djokovic did not establish a continuous scoring system, and eventually lost.
This season, Djokovic has only made 4 appearances in this game, and the lack of formal competition exercise still has a relatively large impact even for players of the giant's level. Despite the defeat, the good news is that Djokovic can play normally for more than three months of the European season, and if there is no injury, there is not much problem in returning to normal form before the French Open.