Novak Djokovic Drops 6-2 Practice Set to Arthur Fils in Rome

novak djokovic lost a 6-2 practice set to Arthur Fils in Rome, a sharp setback in the third seed’s final preparations before his first Italian Open match. He had not played a competitive match since losing to Jack Draper in the third round of Indian Wells, so the work on court three carried added weight.

Arthur Fils Tests Djokovic

Djokovic was beaten by Fils 6-2 in the short practice match on court three. It was a useful measure of where the Serbian stood before the tournament starts, especially with his first clay-court event of the season arriving after that long gap from match play.

Fils brought recent form into the session. He reached the final of the Qatar Open in February and won his first ATP title of the year at the Barcelona Open last month.

Djokovic’s Rome Route

Djokovic has won the Italian Open six times, and this edition places him in the opposite half of the draw from Jannik Sinner. His opening opponent will come from the first-round match between Marton Fucsovics and Dino Prizmic.

The matchup history gives him different reference points for either name. Djokovic leads Fucsovics 6-0 head-to-head, and he has beaten Prizmic once, at the 2024 Australian Open.

Clay Court Preparation

He had been practicing with Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Ignacio Buse during the European clay-court swing, while Carlos Alcaraz’s absence because of a wrist injury leaves another opening in the field. For Djokovic, the issue now is not reputation but rhythm: Rome is the first stop on clay, and the practice loss showed how quickly a session can expose the gap after weeks without a competitive match.

His start in Rome will tell more than the practice set did, but the 6-2 score against Fils left no doubt that the opening stretch on clay will demand immediate precision.