Alejandro Tabilo admits what he was ‘very scared’ Novak Djokovic would do against him after beating him in Monte Carlo
Alejandro Tabilo has once again stunned Novak Djokovic, defeating the 24-time Grand Slam champion at the Monte Carlo Masters just under a year after doing the same in Rome.
The Chilean, who first beat Djokovic during a breakout run to the semifinals of the 2024 Italian Open, repeated the feat with a 6-3, 6-4 victory on Wednesday—marking only his second career win over a top-10 player, both coming against the Serbian legend.
Tabilo: “I was very scared he’d want revenge”
Following the match, Tabilo opened up about his pre-match nerves, revealing to Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj that he was genuinely worried about facing an angry and motivated Djokovic.
“I was actually very scared about that,” said Tabilo. “I know how strong he is mentally. I was expecting him to come out wanting revenge—almost to kill me!”
“So I started really solid, tried to be aggressive, and did my best to keep him off balance. Slowly it began to work, and I think I made him uncomfortable at times, which was great.”
The world No. 32 also admitted that the pressure of the moment began to affect him physically, but he found a way to embrace the nerves.
“I think around 4-all, you start feeling it—your hands and legs go a bit cold,” he explained.
“This time, I just laughed it off a bit and told myself, ‘this is what you play for.’ I tried to use the feeling to push me, not hold me back.”
Djokovic’s Monte Carlo Woes Continue
Despite winning the Monte Carlo Masters twice, Djokovic has struggled to maintain consistency at the event—his 71% win rate makes it his weakest Masters 1000 tournament.
Since his last title in 2015, his performance has dipped further, winning just 64% of his matches over the last 10 appearances. In fact, Monte Carlo has seen Djokovic suffer early exits in several editions, despite routinely receiving second-round byes as a top seed.
Djokovic’s Monte Carlo Masters Results Since 2015:
- 2015 – Champion (def. Tomas Berdych in final)
- 2016 – Second round loss to Jiri Vesely
- 2017 – Quarter-final loss to David Goffin
- 2018 – Third round loss to Dominic Thiem
- 2019 – Quarter-final loss to Daniil Medvedev
- 2021 – Third round loss to Dan Evans
- 2022 – Second round loss to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
- 2023 – Third round loss to Lorenzo Musetti
- 2024 – Semi-final loss to Casper Ruud
- 2025 – Second round loss to Alejandro Tabilo
Tabilo now advances to face 15th seed Karen Khachanov for a spot in the quarterfinals. Djokovic, meanwhile, will shift his focus to the upcoming Madrid Open—where he has predicted Carlos Alcaraz to be the man to beat on clay this season.
