Nadal and Djokovic are still reeling!

TOP seed Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal have had contrasting reactions to their shock defeats at the Monte Carlo Masters.

Rafa Nadal said he missed the opportunity to get his clay court season off to a title-winning start after a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 defeat by Russian Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals, while Djokovic has called his loss to Britain’s Dan Evans his worst performance in many years.

Playing his first tournament since losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Australian Open quarter-finals, 20-times Grand Slam champion Nadal struggled on serve as he crashed to only his sixth defeat at the tournament he has won 11 times.

“It’s been such an important tournament during my career.

I am always sad to lose here because it is an important one for me.

“I missed an opportunity to start the clay season in the right way,” Nadal told reporters.

“But that’s it… It’s not the moment to complain. When you are not able to do the things you had to do on court, then it’s not the moment to complain after.

“The only thing that I can do is go to Barcelona and keep practising, try to fix the things that didn’t work well… Lots of mistakes…

“A few things that make a big difference on the result and on my game that I wasn’t able to make today.”

Rublev said his first victory over Nadal was among the best of his career but acknowledged the Spaniard was off his game.

Nadal served seven double faults and was broken seven times.

“If we look (at) a player like Rafa, the best clay court player in history, then it’s one of my best victories,” Rublev said.

“But if you look at it from the other side… for sure he didn’t play his ‘good’ level.

“In his position it’s tough when people expect that… you have to win every time.

“… It’s so tough to play with this feeling.”

Meanwhile, world number one Novak Djokovic said he felt “awful” on court during the straight-sets defeat against Evans at the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday, and the performance was one of his worst in many years.

Djokovic went into his first meeting against the 33rd-ranked Evans with a 10-0 record in 2021, but exited the ATP Masters 1000 event after an error-prone show in chilly and blustery conditions.

The Serbian congratulated Evans, who came to Monte Carlo having won just four matches on clay, for a “deserved” 6-4 7-5 victory.

“To be honest, this has been probably one of the worst matches and performances from my side I can recall in the last years,” Djokovic told reporters.

“I don’t want to take anything away from his win, but from my side, I just felt awful on the court overall. Just nothing worked. It’s one of those days.

“From my side, I definitely should have done better.

“As I said, definitely that’s been one of the worst performances I can remember in many years.”

Djokovic said he was exiting with a “bitter” feeling, but hoped he can turn things around as he heads home to play the Serbia Open next.

“Just was obviously very, very windy, tough to play in these kinds of conditions against a guy like Evans who makes you move,” he added.

“He is very unpredictable with his shots. He dismantled my game. I was just not feeling it, and playing pretty bad.

“Obviously right now, as I walk off the court, I’m disappointed with the way I played, the way I felt on the court.

But it’s a long clay season. Still plenty of tournaments, plenty of room to improve.

“Obviously I have to work, hopefully get a better performance next week (this week) in Belgrade.” – Reuters.