A ‘concerned’ Novak Djokovic will have medical tests after suffering one of the heaviest defeats of his career, admitting he had been suffering from nausea and dizziness having been hit on the head by a spectator’s bottle in his previous match.
The world No1 was thrashed 6-2, 6-3 in just over an hour by Chilean Alejandro Tabilo at the Italian Open. He made 22 unforced errors, served five double faults and did not have a single break point. He felt, he said, ‘like a different player entered my shoes’.
On Friday, while signing autographs after his second-round victory over Corentin Moutet, Djokovic was hit by what appeared to be an aluminium bottle which fell from a spectator’s bag.
‘I think in the video you saw it very clearly,’ the Serb said after defeat to Tabilo.
‘It was a very unfortunate, unlucky situation for me. It was an accident where that guy leaned over the fence, and the bottle dropped from his rucksack and landed directly on my head.‘I wasn’t even looking up. Then I felt a very strong hit in the head. That has really impacted me a lot. I have been through half an hour, an hour of nausea, dizziness, blood, a lot of different things.
‘I managed to sleep OK. I had headaches. The next day was pretty fine, so I thought it’s OK
