Novak Djokovic suffered a shock defeat in the Srpska Open quarter-finals with a straight sets loss against Dusan Lajovic.
It was the first time that world number one Djokovic had lost to a fellow Serbian since Janko Tipsarevic beat him 11 years ago.
Djokovic, who admitted during his pre-tournament press conference that he had been battling an elbow issue, lost 6-4 7-6 at Banja Luka in Bosnia.
The BIGGEST moment of his career š@Dutzee plays a sensational match to down close friend Djokovic 6-4, 7-6(6) for a semi-final spot#SrpskaOpen pic.twitter.com/sx5lx8zO5b
ā ATP Tour (@atptour) April 21, 2023
For Lajovic, it was only his third career victory against a player in the top five of the world rankings.
It was Djokovicās third defeat of the season, with the Madrid Open his next scheduled tournament, starting later this month.
āI am overwhelmed, it is the biggest win of my career,ā Lajovic said in his on-court interview, reported by www.atptour.com.
āThe emotions are very mixed because Iām playing here in front of the home town and Iām also playing against a good friend and heās a hero of our country.
āBeating him, itās something that I didnāt even think was going to be possible, but it happened.
āHis percentage of the first serve was not the greatest, so I was able to use that to my advantage. But overall, I think it was very good tennis from my side.ā
Why are you making commenting on HeraldScotland only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.Ā
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience forĀ our loyalĀ readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.Ā
That is invaluable.Ā
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalistās job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readersā comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readersā comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the āreport this postā link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here