After falling to his Czech opponent in three sets, the world No. 1 will not make it to the ATP final in 2024 and instead head to Roland Garros.
After losing to Tomas Machac 6-4, 0-6, 6-1 in the semifinals of the Gonet Geneva Open, Novak Djokovic’s last preparations for the 2024 Roladn Garros took a hit.
Machac declared on the court, following his arrival in his first career ATP final, “I think I have no reaction right now, was just fighting for every ball.” “When you play against the world No. 1, you just hope to play your best and see what happens.”
Though Djokovic defeated Machac in the second set, the top seed lost three sets to the Czech, who went on to record his greatest career victory after spending two hours and five minutes on Center Court. Djokovic was hoping to make it to his first final of the 2024 season.
The world No. 1 was in the midst of his longest drought since 2017–2018, when he went 11 months without making a final. This drought ended at the end of the 2023 season in Turin, where he won his record-breaking seventh ATP Finals title, surpassing Roger Federer’s previous record of six. He lost to eventual champion Jannik Sinner in the semifinals of the Australian Open, ending his run at an 11th title, and suffered his first-ever setback to Casper Ruud in the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters semifinals.
To make matters worse, Djokovic had an odd head injury following an impressive opening round performance at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. He also claimed to have experienced concussion symptoms due to a water bottle, and Alejandro Tabilo eliminated him in the third round.
Djokovic took a wild card into the ATP 250 in Geneva in an attempt to gain momentum before Roland Garros. This move paid off in 2021 when he ended a five-month title drought in Belgrade and went on to win his second trophy in Paris.
After defeating Yannick Hanfmann in his first round encounter to win his 1100th match, the 37-year-old saw off Tallon Griekspoor in a challenging first set to secure a semifinal matchup with Machac, a 23-year-old having a career-best season.
In their first meeting as qualifiers in Dubai last February, Machac forced Djokovic to a third-set tiebreaker, coming off of his first-ever Masters 1000 quarterfinal at the Miami Open. Early on, Machac seemed to benefit from that experience as he overcame a 1-4 disadvantage to win five straight games and defeat an unfocused Djokovic in the second set, forcing a medical timeout in between sets.
Djokovic, who was playing better in the second set, took advantage of a mistake by Machac and won 6-0 to tie the match. Machac would not score until the second game of the championship match.
When he did, he started to reverse the momentum against Djokovic, who had given his opponent the break with a shoddy serve game. With a powerful backhand down the line, Djokovic looked to break right back, but Machac responded with similar vigor, pressing the Serb with a run at the net before consolidating for a 3-1 advantage.
A displeased Djokovic parried a break point that would have given him a double break, but Machac soon recovered from another double fault and took the game to position himself two games from victory.
With the finish line in sight, Machac kept up his pressure and won the match with a backhand winner of his own, forcing Djokovic to serve in order to continue. Djokovic saved match point by pushing a backhand long to secure the victory for Machac. The winner of the second semifinal between Flavio Cobolli and No. 2 seed Casper Ruud will advance to face Machac.
