Novak Djokovic : Five of the tennis star's most embarrassing losses

After Djoker's Serbian Open semi final exit yesterday at the hands of Aslan Karatsev, here are five of his most humiliating defeats

Novak Djokovic is one of the greatest players in tennis today. The world no 1 has won every major trophy that is there to be won and is part of the Big Three in tennis today along with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Despite his big successes in the tennis courts Novak has had his fair share of failures as well. Today we take a look at some of the most heartbreaking losses for the Serb in his glorified tennis career.

5> Novak Djokovic vs Lorenzo Sonego ( ATP Vienna 2020)

Novak Djokovic lost to Italy's Lorenzo Sonego in the ATP Vienna tournament. The 25 year old Italian finished the match in 28 minutes to seal the game 6-2, 6-1. Djokovic literally had no answer for his opposition as he failed to keep up with both serve and return. The Serb just managed to win 3 points in the entire game

Novak didn't look like himself and struggled with throughout the game. He only managed to hit 7 winners and made 25 errors during the game. Surprisingly enough Novak had just retained the no 1 spot after winning the previous match in the tournament. Novak really looked out of sorts against the bold and aggressive play of his opponent. The match finally reached its end and with Sonego celebrating his first massive victory against a top 10 opponent.

4> Novak Djokovic vs Dan Evans ( Monte Carlo Masters 2021)

The defeat about which Novak Djokovic had just one word to say "awful". Djokovic clashed against Britain's Dan Evans for the first time in his career. But unfortunately for the DJoker it was the lower ranked Evans who caused an upset. Novak's error prone display also didn't help his cause.

The chilly and windy atmosphere also played an important factor according to the Serb. Coupled with the unpredictability of Evans shots and his ability to make his opponent move from one end to the other The match finally ended with the scoreline of 6-4, 7-5 straight set victory for Evans. It truly left a bitter taste in the mouth for Djoker.

3> Novak Djokovic vs Dominic Thiem ( French Open 2017)

Probably one of the first defeats on Djokovic's career came in the Roland Garros in 2017 when he lost against Dominic Thiem. The Austrian completely dismantled the Djoker in straight sets in quarter finals. Thiem wrapped up the game in dominant fashion with a 7-6,6-3,6-0 thrashing of second seeded Djoker.

It is not a hidden fact that the Djoker has his issues on clay court. But even then no Djoker fan was expecting this one sided slaughter that they got to witness. The first set however was competitive with it heading to a tiebreak. From then on it was all Thiem outplaying Novak with his power shots. Thiem hit 38 winners compared to Djoker's 18.

Thiem was so ruthless that he did not even allow Djoker to win a game in the third set. "He deserved to win, he was definitely the better player on the court" said Djokovic on his brutal loss.

2> Novak Djokovic vs Aslan Karatsev ( Serbian Open 2021)

The latest one to make the list is Djokovic's most recent defeat at the hands of Russia's Aslan Karatsev. More so because of the fact that it happened in his hometurf of Belgrade, Serbia.

The Djoker met Karatsev in the semi-finals of the Serbian Open where he was the clear favorite. This however did not deter the 28th seed Russian who took the first set. The no 1 seed came back and took the second setting the game up for a final set. Novak won four straight games as he did so while trailing 4-2.

The third set saw Djokovic saving a match point but it was little too late. Karatsev saved two final breakpoints to clinch the victory. The match ended after 3 hours and 25 minutes with Karatsev winning 7-5,4-6,6-4.

1> Novak Djokovic vs Pablo Carreno Busta ( US Open 2020)

Novak Djokovic's most embarrassing defeat in his career did not come against any player. It came against the match referee in the 4th round of the US Open as he was disqualified from the tournament. The Djoker had accidentally hit the line judge in the throat with a tennis ball.

Djokovic was trailing in his match against Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta 6-5 in the first set when he smacked the ball behind him. Consequently the ball hit the line judge in her neck injuring her. Within moments Novak was disqualified from the match with Busta making it through to the quarter finals.

Speaking on the incident Novak said ," The rules are clear. I accepted it and had to move on. That's what I did". The unceremonious exit though came with its price. It ended Novak's 29 match winning streak and his bid for his 18th Grand Slam title.

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