Djokovic stunned by world number 123
Indian Wells lucky loser Luca Nardi caused an almighty shock by becoming the lowest-ranked player ever to beat Novak Djokovic at ATP Masters 1000 or Grand Slam level.
The 20-year-old Italian, who is currently ranked 123rd in the world, booked a last-16 meeting with Tommy Paul at the BNP Paribas Open as he won 6-4 3-6 6-3 as a 12/1 outsider. Sealing his victory with his sixth ace, Nardi hit 16 winners in the final set against just two from the five-time Indian Wells champion and 1/50 match favourite.
"I don’t know [how I held my nerve]," he said. "I think it is a miracle, because I am a 20-year-old guy, 100 in the world, and beating Novak. It’s crazy."
Djokovic is yet to win any tournament in 2024 so far and said: "It’s fine. You know, it’s part of the sport. You just have to accept it. Some you win; some you lose.
"Hopefully I’ll win some more and still keep going. I guess every trophy that eventually comes my way is going to be great, obviously to break the kind of negative cycle a little bit I’m having in the last three, four tournaments where I haven’t really been close to my best."
Who was the lowest ranked player to beat Roger Federer?
Back in the 2017 Stuttgart Open, world number two Roger Federer was humbled by German veteran Tommy Haas, who had tumbled down the rankings to 302 at the time of their clash.
Haas was an extremely dangerous player back in his heyday and had previously managed to beat Federer in three of their 16 encounters prior to this meeting, which he won 2-6 7-6 6-4 to send the German fans wild.
Federer lost a few more times to players ranked outside the top 100 during this period of his career - including world number 175 Thanasi Kokkinakis at the Miami Open in 2018 and world number 116 Evgeny Donskoy at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in 2017.
But the biggest upset of his career came against world number 116 Sergiy Stakhovsky during the second round of Wimbledon in 2013 when he was defending champion. It ended his run of reaching 36 Grand Slam quarter-finals in a row and was his earliest Grand Slam exit in a decade.
Who was the lowest ranked player to beat Rafael Nadal?
In terms of ranking number, Rafael Nadal's worst defeat came against Joachim Johansson back in the 2006 Stockholm Open when he was a world number two.
Johansson, who was a former top 10 player, was ranked 690 at this time but two years earlier had reached the semi-finals of the US Open.
In 2005, as the newly-crowned French Open champion, a 19-year-old Nadal also suffered a shock defeat to world number 147 Alexander Waske at the Gerry Weber Open but given the stage of the Spaniard's career, it didn't cause massive shockwaves through the sport.
However, his back-to-back Wimbledon exits in 2012 and 2013 most certainly did.
In 2012, world number 100 Lukas Rosol claimed a thrilling 6-7 6-4 6-4 2-6 6-3 triumph in just the second round and 12 months later he suffered a 7-6 7-6 6-4 loss to world number 135 Steve Darcis that ended a 22-match winning streak in all competitions.
