Tennis legend Chris Evert recently said that during his 2024 Italian Open third-round match, Novak Djokovic struggled to focus mentally and lacked patience.

In his 18th appearance at the Italian Open, Alejandro Tabilo of Chile ended Djokovic’s run 6-2, 6-3 in the third round. Djokovic has yet to win a medal this season.

Former world No. 1 Evert expressed concern about Djokovic on X, saying that the 36-year-old feels anxious and is having mental difficulties. She wrote: “Novak is having a hard time getting mentally engaged: low on patience and not looking over at the team. It happens! Will he find his game and mentality today? Keep watching!”

After losing to Tabilo in the third round of the Italian Open, Djokovic was questioned by the media about whether the water bottle incident that happened on Friday when he was signing autographs for fans had an impact on his play.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion replied that he would need to get additional tests done and said he wasn’t sure.

Djokovic said: “I don’t know; to be honest, I have to check that. The training was different. I was going for some easy training yesterday. I didn’t feel anything, but I also didn’t feel the same. Today, under high stress, it was quite bad—not in terms of pain, but in terms of this balance. There is just no coordination. Completely different player from what it was two nights ago. Could be. I don’t know. I have to do medical checkups and see what’s going on.”

Novak Djokovic in 2024

Ranked world no.1, Novak played his last match on the 12^th of May when he lost to world no.32 Alejandro Tabilo 6-2 6-3 in the 3^rd round in Rome (draw).

At the moment, during this season the Serbian has an overall 12-5 win-loss record. Novak Djokovic’s best performance of the present year was getting to the semifinal at the Australian Open and Monte Carlo.

Djokovic has scheduled to compete next at the French Open (French Open). He will begin to play the tournament from the main draw that will commence on the 26th of May.