Djokovic made a mistake when he lost the doubles match
Doubles Djokovic and Cacic had three break-points in the whole match, but failed to take advantage of it. In contrast, the Serbian doubles only saved one in four chances of losing the game of service. The games they lost were all Djokovic's games.
The Cincinnati Masters men's doubles first round match was Nole's first official match since the Wimbledon final, where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in five sets. The 36-year-old player does not have the best ball feeling, often misses and serves a lot of errors. When the score was 4-5, 30-40 in the first set, Djokovic made a double mistake, causing him and his teammates to lose the set.
While Cacic kept the game steady, Djokovic failed to do the same. He lost two more serve games in the second set and left the tournament with Cacic with a 2-6, 4-6 loss.
Djokovic will start the men's singles Cincinnati Masters with a match against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round today, August 16. Nole has won the Cincinnati Masters twice, including the last time in 2020. In 2018, he was crowned here for the first time, thereby completing the Golden Masters (winning all nine different Masters).
The match against Davidovich Fokina will be the first time Djokovic plays a singles match in the US in two years, since the US Open final 2021 lost to Daniil Medvedev. Since that match, Djokovic has not been able to participate in any tournament in the US because he does not have a vaccine passport. With the US government lifting entry restrictions on people who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 in May, the Serbian tennis player is eligible to enter the US to play the series in the August hard court season.
Djokovic is 600 points behind Alcaraz on the ATP rankings, and has an advantage in the race for world number one. Alcaraz is about to have to defend 180 points at the Cincinnati Masters and 2000 points at the US Open, while Djokovic does not have to defend any points because he did not attend these two tournaments last year.
