Novak Djokovic continues worrisome trend from 2024 in Brisbane International loss

Novak Djokovic was bounced out of the Brisbane International after getting wins in his first two matches. The loss means the Serb will turn his attention to the Australian Open. This also means that tennis fans are just a week away from seeing the new partnership between Djokovic and his new coach, Andy Murray.

The issue with the Serb's latest failure was that it followed a trend from 2024 that Djokovic had never faced before. He had shock losses to Luca Nardi at Indian Wells, Alejandro Tabilo at the Rome Masters, and Tomas Machac at the Geneva Open. Losing to other highly-ranked players is one thing, but consistently losing to players that the Serb should defeat is another thing altogether.

In the quarterfinals at the Brisbane International, Djokovic fell to ATP No. 293 Reilly Opelka. The 6'11" American said after the match that he felt as if he had nothing to lose by playing freely against the 24-time Grand Slam winner. No one expected the American to win, which he said might have made the match more difficult for Djokovic.

Novak Djokovic falls to Reilly Opelka at the Brisbane International

To be fair, Opelka played well enough to beat many players as well as he served. He had 16 aces against arguably the best returner ever. He committed to hitting certain spots on the court and stayed with it, partly because he was rarely missing. The Serb also had never played the American before so while Djokovic is experienced enough to adjust to anyone, if someone is serving as well as Opelka was, adjustments become much more difficult.

Maybe Djokovic simply wanted to get a bit of work in and was not overly motivated to take the title in Brisbane. If nothing else, the earlier-than-expected loss means he gets a couple of more days of rest before preparing fully for Melbourne. He obviously knows how to win there as he has 10 Australian Open titles.

Opelka's win helps set up an extremely interesting match against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. Both players are among the better servers in tennis so we likely will see a quick match with lots of aces. The other Brisbane International semifinal will feature ATP No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov versus Jiri Lehecka.

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