Novak Djokovic opened up about his shocking third-round defeat at the 2024 Italian Open. The Serb has admitted that he needs to step his game up if he wants a shot at winning the upcoming tournaments.

The World No. 1 has had a disappointing 2024 season so far and finds himself in the midst of a form slump. He is yet to win a title this year and turned to the European clay court swing with the hope of turning things around.

Djokovic kicked off his clay season at the Monte-Carlo Masters and looked to have found his rhythm, but he was defeated by Casper Ruud in the semifinals. He then participated in the Italian Open and began his campaign with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Corentin Moutet.

However, things have gone from bad to worse for the 36-year-old as he was easily defeated in the third round by 29th-seed Alejandro Tabilo 6-2, 6-3 in just one hour and seven minutes.

When asked what areas he needs to look at ahead of the upcoming French Open and Olympics at the post-match press conference, Novak Djokovic admitted that he needs to improve every single area of his game to have a shot at winning these tournaments.

“Well, everything. Everything needs to be better in order for me to have at least a chance to win it.”

Novak Djokovic speaks on another possibility of his disappointing performance

When asked if his poor performance had anything to do with the ‘metal bottle’ accident from a couple of days back, Novak Djokovic responded that he wasn’t sure whether the incident had any lasting effects on him but responded that he didn’t feel anything.

“I don’t know, to be honest,” Djokovic told the media. “I have to check that. Training was different. I was going for kind of easy training yesterday. I didn’t feel anything, but I also didn’t feel the same.”

The Serb mentioned that his performance was extremely subpar in comparison to the second round and had no coordination and balance. He also said that he would be taking medical checkups to see if there were any issues:

“Today under high stress, it was quite bad – not in terms of pain, but in terms of this balance. 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.”