Novak Djokovic issues apology in gloomy 141-word press conference at Monte-Carlo Masters

Novak Djokovic apologised to the crowd after losing his opening match at the Monte-Carlo Masters. The world No. 5 wasn’t in good spirits after suffering a 6-3 6-4 defeat to Alejandro Tabilo and spoke just 141 words in his press conference, claiming it felt “horrible” to play that way.

Ahead of the tournament, the 24-time Major winner admitted his expectations weren’t high as he had a quick turnaround after reaching the final of the Miami Open. But Djokovic didn’t anticipate he would perform “this bad”.

It wasn’t the best day in the office for Djokovic on Wednesday, as he hit 29 unforced errors and struggled to land his first serve. And the third seed had a brutal verdict of his own performance.

“It was actually more like the worst day,” he said immediately after coming off of the court. “Look, I was hoping it was not going to happen, but it was quite a high probability I'm going to play this way. I don't know.

“Just horrible. Horrible feeling to play this way, and just sorry for all the people that have to witness this.”

While Djokovic had been realistic about his chances of going deep in Monte-Carlo, he was still bitterly disappointed after losing his first match on clay since last year’s Italian Open.

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“Well, I expected myself at least to have put a decent performance. Not like this. It was horrible. I did not have high expectations, really,” he explained.

“I knew I'm gonna have a tough opponent and I knew I'm gonna probably play pretty bad. But this bad, I didn't expect.”

The 24-time Grand Slam champion is next expected to compete at the Madrid Open at the end of this month, where he will be joined by coach Andy Murray. But Djokovic has his sights set on just one tournament this clay season.

“Roland Garros. That’s it,” he smiled.

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