Alex de Minaur's huge boost as Novak Djokovic suffers ...

Alex de Minaur won't have to go through Novak Djokovic if he wants to win the Qatar Open after the Serbian tennis star suffered a shock first-up loss to Matteo Berrettini on Tuesday night. Playing his first match since tearing his hamstring at the Australian Open three weeks ago, Djokovic was blown off the court by his Italian opponent 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.

It marked Berrettini's first win over Djokovic in five career meetings and a huge moment for the Italian after some injury-plagued years. It was just his second win of 2025 and first over a player in the top 10 since 2023.

Djokovic previously beat Berrettini in the Wimbledon final and French Open quarters - both in 2021. "Something I've been looking to do for a long time," Berrettini said on court. "I've played against him in the most important tournaments on tour. I wish I could have won one of those matches. Really happy with my performance. Really happy because I enjoyed my time out there, which is the most important thing."

The loss comes as a rather embarrassing blow for Djokovic after he made some explosive comments about World No.1 Jannik Sinner just 24 hours earlier. Tennis fans couldn't help but point out that Djokovic lost to Sinner's countryman, who came out in support of the Australian Open champ after he copped a controversial three-month suspension for inadvertently doping.

Speaking ahead of his first match in Doha, Djokovic said: “It’s not a good image for our sport, that’s for sure. I would say a majority of the players that I’ve talked to in the locker room – not just in the last few days but also the last few months – are not happy with the way this whole process has been handled.

“The majority of the players don’t feel that it’s fair. The majority of the players feel like there is favouritism happening. And it appears that you can almost affect the outcome if you are a top player, if you have access to the top lawyers and whatnot.”

He denied after his loss to Berrettini that his hamstring had hampered him. "I didn't have any pain or discomfort, I was outplayed by just a better player today," he said. "I wasn't at my desired level, and it could be that I'm still not moving the way I want to move, but, I mean, I played without pain, so there is no excuse. He was just the better player. I think he played a master-class match, to be honest."

Alex de Minaur handed big boost after Novak Djokovic loss

As for de Minaur, the Aussie earlier breezed through with a 6-1 7-5 win over Russia's Roman Safiullin. Currently ranked World No.6, de Minaur is seeded second in Qatar behind only Carlos Alcaraz. With Sinner wiped out by suspension, Alcaraz and Djokovic shaped as his biggest threats to win the ATP 500 event. But his path to the title was made a whole lot easier when Djokovic crashed out on Tuesday night.

The Australian enjoyed his tour-leading 12th victory of the year, with his only losses of 2025 coming against Sinner (Australian Open quarters) and Alcaraz (Rotterdam final). The victory also marked de Minaur's 200th career win on hard courts.

It turned out to be slightly harder work than expected against Safiulin in cool, humid and windy conditions. "Oh man, they're tough days, these ones," said de Minaur after his victory in one hour 37 minutes over the World No.71.

"It's cold, it's windy, you don't really want to get out of bed, but once you step out on court, you've got to do what you've got to do to win, whether it's ugly tennis or pretty tennis. It was swirling wind, it wasn't constant, so it made it quite difficult to play and feel comfortable out there.

"So out went any sort of tactics you had for the match and it was all about surviving more than anything. At the end of the day, you've just got to find a way to get the ball in the court and that's what I did today."

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De Minaur will face Botic van de Zandschulp in the last 16 after the Dutch player beat Abedallah Shelbayh of Jordan 7-5 6-3. De Minaur thrashed van de Zandschulp in straight sets at the Australian Open last month.

with agencies