Novak Djokovic falls to 20-year-old Italian Luca Nardi in third-round stunner at Indian Wells

Twenty-year-old Luca Nardi of Italy has pulled off the biggest surprise of tournament—and maybe even the year—with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Novak Djokovic in the third round of Indian Wells.

And it’s historic: at No. 123, Nardi is the lowest-ranked player ever to defeat Djokovic at a Masters 1000 or Grand Slam event.

It’s by far the biggest win of his young career, too—he only just got the first Top 50 win of his career in the second round of Indian Wells two days ago, defeating a No. 50-ranked Zhang Zhizhen of China.

He was asked in his on-court interview how he kept his nerve against the most accomplished player in tennis history.

“I don’t know man, really I don’t know,” he replied.

“I think this is a miracle, because I’m a 20-year-old guy, 100 in the world and beating Novak. So crazy, crazy.”

But over the course of two hours and 20 minutes on Monday night he took it to the world No. 1, ripping twice as many winners as the 24-time Grand Slam champion, 36 to 18, with his forehand the shot of the match—he produced 21 of his 36 winners from that side alone.

“I think that before this night no one knew me,” he said. “I hope the crowd enjoyed the game, and I’m super happy with this one.”

Though he lists Roger Federer as his tennis idol on his official ATP bio, Nardi has always looked up to Djokovic as well—he’s even had a poster of him on his bedroom door since he was eight years old.

But he put that all aside and came out swinging on Monday night, getting the first break of the match in the fifth game to go up 3-2 and riding that break until he had the first set in his pocket.

After trading breaks early in the second set, Djokovic grabbed another break for a 4-2 lead, and the two held from there until they were headed to a third set—but the match tipped back towards Nardi in the decider as he broke for a 4-2 lead and held until it was all over. He even finished it off with back-to-back winners—a forehand swinging volley winner to set up match point, then a perfect ace out wide on the deuce side to seal the deal.

Djokovic actually won more points in the match, 93 to 92, but it was all about the break points—and though Nardi's conversion rate wasn’t as good, he got one more break (3/11 compared to 2/4).

Djokovic, a 40-time Masters 1000 champion and five-time Indian Wells winner in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016, was clearly not at his best—he finished the match with 18 winners to 31 unforced errors, which includes negative differentials on both of his legendary groundstrokes (11 to 17 on the forehand, 3 to 13 on the backhand).

It all led to the worst loss of his career at a Masters 1000 or Grand Slam event in terms of ranking—his previous-worst such loss came to a No. 122-ranked Kevin Anderson at Miami in 2008.

But it was only Djokovic’s first tournament since the Australian Open, and there’s another Masters 1000 right around the corner in Miami, where he’s a six-time winner in 2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016.