{"id":217596,"date":"2025-10-11T21:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T21:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/217596\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T21:14:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T21:14:06","slug":"novak-djokovic-stunned-by-world-no-204-in-tennis-shocker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/217596\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic stunned by World No. 204 in tennis shocker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Novak Djokovic approached his relatively unknown opponent, the world\u2019s No. 204 player, with a smile.<\/p>\n<p>He had just suffered one of the most shocking losses of his career, falling to to Valentin Vacherot in the semifinals of the Shanghai Masters, yet the tennis icon wanted to give his foe his proper credit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou deserve it,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cYou played unbelievable. \u2026 Keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Novak Djokovic (r) shakes hands with Valentin Vacherot (l) Getty Images<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Novak Djokovic and Valentin Vacherot had a beautiful moment at the net after their match in Shanghai<\/p>\n<p>Novak: &#8220;You deserve it. You played unbelievable. Keep it going.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Valentin: &#8220;Such a pleasure to play at least once against you. Don&#8217;t retire.&#8221; \ud83e\udd79<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/k0WuGNq1Ou\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/k0WuGNq1Ou<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheTennisLetter\/status\/1976965804936904986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">October 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>With the 38-year-old Djokovic\u2019s career winding down, Saturday morning\u2019s result marked one of the wildest upsets he\u2019s been on the wrong end of in his career, falling 3-6, 4-6 in straight sets.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic had been battling illnesses during this tournament and it seemed to affect him Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The Serbian star had vomited during previous matches while battling the heat and tough conditions, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/tennis\/articles\/cz696pywwnlo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic reportedly received medical treatment during Saturday\u2019s match, including during the start of the seventh game when he took a lengthier break and laid on his back.<\/p>\n<p>Novak Djokovic being attended to during Saturday\u2019s match. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>He did not want to focus on the physical issues after the loss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to congratulate Valentin for reaching his first Masters final,\u201d Djokovic said, according to BBC. \u201cGoing from qualifications, it\u2019s an amazing story. I told him at the net that he\u2019s had an amazing tournament, but more so his attitude is very good and his game was amazing as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, it\u2019s all about him. I wish him all the best in the finals and the better player won today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Valentin Vacherot in shock after the upset win. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Vacherot, 26, could not believe that he upset one of the sport\u2019s all-time great competitors.<\/p>\n<p>He will now face his cousin, Arthur Rinderknech, in Sunday\u2019s final, and is the lowest-ranked finalist in an ATP Masters 1000 event ever, per BBC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m trying to pinch myself, is this real?\u201d Vacherot said, per the outlet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo have Novak on the other side of the court was first of all an invaluable experience for me. I have a hundred feelings right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic approached his relatively unknown opponent, the world\u2019s No. 204 player, with a smile. He had just&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[433,99,428,5417],"class_list":["post-217596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-match"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}