Djokovic falls to Rublev in Belgrade final

World 1st  Novak Djokovic turned into denied his first title of the year on Sunday, falling in 3 sets to Russia’s Andrey Rublev in the final of the Serbia Open.

Second seed Rublev won thru 6-2, 6-7 (4/7), 6-0 against the top seed who had been seeking to regain prevailing form earlier than his French Open name defense next month.

The Belgrade event changed into the most effective Djokovic’s 0.33 of 2022 after he changed into deported from Melbourne – and denied the hazard to guard his Australian Open identify – after entering the state unvaccinated.

However, the 20-time Grand Slam winner was let down by his lack of physical form.

The 34-year-old, who lost in the quarter-finals in Dubai and suffered a shock second-round defeat in Monte Carlo, battled past Laslo Djere, Miomir Kecmanovic and Karen Khachanov in three sets before the court time caught up with the top seed against Rublev.

Djokovic got off to a bad start, dropping serve twice, to lose the first set after have an hour.

Buoyed by the support of the 8,000 crowds, Djokovic fought back in a marathon second set which lasted just over an hour, leveling in the tie-break despite wasting six set points, before running out of steam in the third.

Rublev captured his third title of the season, days after blasting Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players as “complete discrimination”.

Wimbledon banned all Russian and Belarusian players from this summer’s Grand Slam tournament due to the invasion of Ukraine.

It become a choice condemned via the ATP and WTA in addition to a host of gamers along with global number one Novak Djokovic who described the sanction as “loopy”.

Rublev has now equaled Spaniard Rafael Nadal for the most excursion-degree titles in 2022, having also clinched crowns in Marseille and Dubai in February.