By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Yes, you read and heard it right. Novak Djokovic lost in the Round of 64 stage in the ongoing BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells tennis tournament.
In a stunning sequence of events at the Indian Wells Garden in California, the favorite to win the championship title immediately exited the main draw on March 9, 2025, after losing to Botic van de Zandschulp from the Netherlands.
Djokovic gave up a three-set defeat to van de Zandschulp- 6.2, 3.6, 6.1- and is now on a three-game losing streak since withdrawing from his semifinal match against Alexander Zverev during the Australian Open.
The star from the Netherlands showed no fear in sharing the court with the man who won the most Grand Slam championship titles in the history of men’s lawn tennis.
Too explosive and vicious with his down-the-line forehand stroke, van de Zandschulp quickly snatched the momentum when he scored an early break point followed by a hold to race to a three-point lead in the first set.
Van de Zandschulp also took advantage of Djokovic’s shaky start, after the Serbian living legend committed four costly unforced errors during their final five rally exchanges.
Just when van de Zandschulp thought he already got the game in hand, Djokovic flipped the switch when he roared back in the second set to equalize the affair at 1-1.
From a disappointing first-set outing, Djokovic impressed his fans who flocked to the Indian Wells Garden with a series of jaw-dropping winners including an insane cross-court drop shot winner to seal the second.
However, the third and final set just became anticlimactic as Djokovic failed to meet the expectations with a string of uncharacteristic errors and missed hits.
As a result, van de Zandschulp walked away with a walk-in-the-park win in the third and limited Djokovic to just a point in the final frame.
“Obviously no excuses for a poor performance. It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court, but congratulations to my opponent. Just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me,” Djokovic said during his post-game interview.
