Tabilo stuns Novak Djokovic again: Joins Nadal as the only players to hold positive H2H on clay

Alejandro Tabilo has joined Rafael Nadal as the only players with a positive head-to-head record against Novak Djokovic on clay courts, with at least two matches played. It’s no small feat to beat the three-time French Open champion on clay, but the Chilean achieves it for the second consecutive year.

For the second consecutive time, Djokovic crashes against Tabilo (6-3, 6-4), this time in Monte-Carlo Masters. Nearly a year ago at the Italian Open, the world No. 32 caused the surprise of the tournament by defeating the 24-time Grand Slam champion in the third round (6-2, 6-3), an unexpected exit for the Serbian, who had started to show concerns with some early-season setbacks.

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The Serbian could not recover and was once again defeated by the Chilean (6-3, 6-4). The South American becomes just the second player to hold a favorable head-to-head against Djokovic on clay courts. The first is, of course, Rafael Nadal, with a 20-9 record in his favour on this surface.

Despite competing throughout his career against the King of Clay, Nadal, the Serbian can proudly boast an incredible 11 Masters 1000 titles on clay (with another 8 finals). He has three French Open titles and four other finals there, along with a gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games, played precisely on the clay courts of Roland Garros.

Though overshadowed by Nadal's unreal record on clay, the 38-year-old legend has more than enough achievements to rank among the best on slow surfaces.

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Tabilo's victory also places him as one of the only three players undefeated against Djokovic on all surfaces, with at least two matches played between them. The other two are former World No. 1 Marat Safin—currently Andrey Rublev’s coach—who defeated Djokovic at the Australian Open (2005) and Wimbledon (2008), both without dropping a set.

It took 14 years for another player to join the list: Czech Jiri Vesely, who also has a 2-0 record, with victories at the Monte-Carlo Masters (2016) and Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (2022).

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Currently, only seven players have a positive head-to-head record against Djokovic. In addition to Safin, Vesely, and Tabilo, retired players Andy Roddick (5-4), Fernando Gonzalez (2-1), and Ivo Karlovic (2-1) also defeated Djokovic in the early stages of his career while they were top-10 players. The last player is Nick Kyrgios (2-1), who was 2-0 up in the head-to-head, but Djokovic took revenge in the 2022 Wimbledon final.

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