Italian Open: Coco Gauff’s Coach Brad Gilbert Heaps Praise on Alejandro Tabilo While Highlighting ‘Strange’ Novak Djokovic Stat

Is Novak Djokovic finished? After his recent defeat to Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo by 2-6,3-6, this question has yet again started to surface on social media. Novak Djokovic is still trophyless this season! With this defeat, the six-time champion has now failed to reach at least the QF of the Italian Open for the first time since 2006. Huge dark clouds loom in the Serbian sky ahead of the Roland Garros.

On the other hand, a few of them choose to celebrate Tabilo’s historic triumph. Coco Gauff‘s coach Brad Gilbert is one of those! He heaped praise on the Chilean for his stunning performance against the world number one.

Alejandro Tabilo has been in good form this season. He has already won two titles before getting the biggest victory in his career. However, this victory has made him the first Chilean to beat a world number-one tennis player since Fernando Gonzalez beat Roger Federer at the ATP Finals in 2007. Brad Gilbert looked quite impressed with the 26-year-old Chilean. He said, “Full credit to Tabilo. His 1st top win and gets it vs Djoker, strange stat for Djoker not have a breakpoint. Wonder when last time that happened in clay match.“

Tennis fans were surprised to see Novak Djokovic with such an uncharacteristically low-energy approach in this match. Is it because of getting hit by a water bottle in his previous match? Well, Djokovic isn’t too sure at the moment if it has really affected his performance. The Chilean however, broke Djokovic’s serve four times and didn’t face a single breakpoint en route to a 68-minute victory against the world number one. Alejandro Tabilo is currently ranked 32 in the men’s singles ranking. This was the second time he has advanced to the fourth round of a Masters 1000 tournament.

He has been going through a lot of emotions after the match. “It’s incredible. I came on court just looking around, just trying to soak it all in and trying to process everything. I’m just trying to wake up right now,” Tabilo. He is going to remember this moment forever in his life but what does his family say about this historic achievement?

“I‘m still trying to process everything” – Alejandro Tabilo’s reaction after defeating Novak Djokovic

Going through a step-by-step approach and keeping the nerves calm was the key to the success of Tabilo against Novak Djokovic. Alejandro Tabilo spoke about how he wanted to see through the match point by point rather than thinking of trying anything fancy. He still can’t believe what had just happened.

The 26-year-old Chilean tennis star stated, “I think everybody who has been involved in the process [of my career], and my family, can’t believe it right now.” This will perhaps take him a bit more time to digest, “They basically sent me in [to the match] with, ‘You’ve done a great job, it’s unbelievable that you’ve got this far’. So I don’t think anybody can believe it. I’m still trying to process everything, so it’s a crazy feeling.” But in these types of tournaments, there isn’t much time to think about the past. The actions come in thick and fast and he needs to keep on performing. How far do you think he can go in this tournament this year?