Novak Djokovic entered Paris with much more than hopes of winning yet another title. Even the universe conspired to clear his path. His closest competitors in the ATP race, Alex de Minaur, Frances Tiafoe, and Rafael Nadal, had all lost their matches at the La Défense Arena on Wednesday. Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev were also out. Then, in the first set of the third round against world No. 83, Rinky Hijikata, all bets would’ve been on the Serb. Little did he know that the Australian qualifier who almost withdrew from the matchup would turn the tables. And how!

Despite Djokovic’s strong beginning in the second set, Hijikata came around to force a decider. The momentum continued and the story repeated, and the Australian got one of the biggest wins of his career in the upset. Considering how everything unfolded, Djokovic wasn’t pleased with himself.

“Nobody loves losing but it’s just another match, I know I should have won this match,” said Djokovic in a post-match press interview. “I played well first set but then lost control of the match after that. Of course I’m not the freshest, but not an excuse for the loss.”

Hijikata almost withdrew before his match against Djokovic, before showing him the door

On Tuesday evening, Hijikata was experiencing some discomfort in his neck. When he couldn’t get rid of it through the night and the next morning, he almost went to withdraw his name. But just then, he thought, what’s the worst that can happen? He was right.

Coming into the match, Djokovic had a 2-0 head-to-head record against Hijikata, beating the Australian in straight sets both times they played each other in 2025. The match looked set to go in a similar direction when the Serb was dominant in the first set, closing it out 6-2 in under 40 minutes. The serve was working for the 24-time Major champion as he faced only one break point in the set, while breaking his opponent’s serve twice.

The second set remained on serve till 4-3, which is when Hijikata turned the match around by getting a crucial service break to go 5-3 up. The Australian is a Grand Slam champion in doubles and has experience holding under pressure, which he showed as he served the second set out at 6-3. In the third set, Djokovic made the early move, getting three break points to go 3-1 up, but could not convert, and Hijikata found his opening.

He remained assured behind his own serve while making significant inroads into the Serb’s second serve, with Djokovic managing to win only one second-serve point in the third set. The Australian broke twice, winning the match 2-6, 6-3,6-3.

“I wasn’t even close to his level in that set. I couldn’t touch his serve either, he was acing me for fun,” beamed Hijikata in an interview with Sky Sports.

“I knew I just had to really hang tough, and take it to him and play aggressive, impose myself, and I guess in the end I was glad I could maintain my level for as long as I did and trust myself in the big moments.”

Novak Djokovic is forming losing patterns

Djokovic not being fresh does have some merit. The Serb had just played a grueling opening match against Valentin Vacherot, where he made one of his signature comebacks after losing the first set and being broken down in the second set. However, with the Paris Masters being a condensed one-week event, Djokovic was always in for a tough schedule.

He needed at least a semifinal run in Nantes to keep his Turin hopes alive. But with this third-round defeat, he wrapped up his season outside the top ten. But the Hijikata loss is not the first time that the Serb has fallen to a lower-ranked player this year, especially at the Masters.

The likes of Dino Prizmic and Thiago Augustin Tirante have beaten him at Rome and Cincinnati this year, venues where Djokovic had previously been successful. The Serb has also struggled against opponents he has beaten previously. The most recent example was the loss to Jan-Lennard Struff in Basel, against whom the former World No. 1 had lost only one set in eight previous meetings.

With the loss in Paris, Djokovic’s 2026 season came to an end, with the Serb missing the qualification cut for the ATP Finals for the first time in nine years.

Novak Djokovic Misses ATP Finals Qualification After Nine Years

2017 was the last year Djokovic did not make it to the year-end championships when healthy, mainly because he ended his season after Wimbledon due to an injury. Ironically, the former World No. 1 had qualified for the Finals in 2024 and 2025, but skipped the event to preserve his body and prepare for next season.

This year was different as the Serb had played a very limited schedule, focusing strictly on Grand Slams, and was motivated to make the cut for the Finals. His winning the China Open was a big boost to his chances, but his form fell off after the title in Beijing, as he lost three of his next five matches.

The season saw Djokovic play 31 matches in total, his lowest Tour-level tally since 2005, when he played 22 matches. The Serb had some excellent highs, such as reaching the Australian Open final and winning a marathon Wimbledon quarterfinal, but his losses also showed that the once impregnable force was now on its last legs. Djokovic has not reached the quarter-final in any of this year’s Masters 1000 events, winning

Despite reaching the final of the Australian Open and the semi-finals of Wimbledon, Djokovic has not reached the quarter-finals in any of this year’s Masters 1000 events, the last of his 24 Grand Slam titles at the US Open in 2023. If he had qualified for Turin, he would have had a chance to win a record-extending eighth title there. For now, though, he already knows what he will do until the 2027 season begins: “Rest.”