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 👏@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
— 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 Djokovic’s third defeat of the season, with the Madrid Open his next scheduled tournament, starting later this month.
“I am overwhelmed, it is the biggest win of my career,” Lajovic said in his on-court interview, reported by www.atptour.com.
“The emotions are very mixed because I’m playing here in front of the home town and I’m also playing against a good friend and he’s a hero of our country.
“Beating him, it’s something that I didn’t even think was going to be possible, but it happened.
“His 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.”
