With a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the legend in Monte Carlo on Wednesday, Alejandro Tabilo improved to 2-0 in his career against Novak Djokovic, having also won their only previous meeting in Rome last year.
With that, the Chilean joins rare company as the ninth player ever to win their first two career meetings against Djokovic, after Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Marat Safin, Guillermo Coria, Fernando Verdasco, Nick Kyrgios, Olivier Rochus and Jiri Vesely.
And the company gets even rarer.
Given he also defeated Djokovic in straight sets in their first meeting in Rome, 6-2, 6-3, Tabilo is only the fourth player ever to win their first two career meetings against Djokovic without dropping a set.
Only Nadal, Safin and Kyrgios had previously done that.
Nadal won his first meeting with Djokovic in the 2006 Roland Garros quarterfinals, 6-4, 6-4, retired (after Djokovic had to stop due to a back injury), then beat him 6-2, 7-5 in the 2007 Indian Wells final.
Safin’s the only one to do it in two Grand Slam meetings, defeating him in the first round of the Australian Open in 2005, 6-0, 6-2, 6-1, then in the second round of Wimbledon in 2008, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-2.
Kyrgios is the only one to do it in the same year, 2017, and at back-to-back events too, beating him in the quarterfinals of Acapulco, 7-6 (9), 7-5, then in the fourth round of Indian Wells, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
Tabilo is the only one of the group to win his first two meetings with Djokovic in a completed match and without going to a tie-break.
More to come…
