Can Alejandro Tabilo get his third win over Novak Djokovic in an injury-plagued season? | ATP Tour

Struggle and Success

Can Tabilo beat Djokovic for a third time in an injury-plagued season?

Chilean gives exclusive interview to ATPTour.com ahead of match against Djokovic in Athens

November 03, 2025

Alejandro Tabilo will have a thrilling showdown with Novak Djokovic on Tuesday night at the Wanda Pharma Greek Championship. On paper, Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam champion, would be the favorite compared to Tabilo, who is ranked 89th in the PIF ATP rankings. But the Chilean is one of three players (along with Marat Safin and Jiri Veseli) to have faced Djokovic at least twice without losing.

Former world number one Novak Djokovic will try to change that statistic in Athens, but Tabilow is excited about the challenge.

“It’s nice to win something like this [before]. It will be different this time on hard courts,” Tabilo told ATPTour.com. “Just want to have a good match and hopefully stay on top. But it’s crazy to think about [his 2-0 lead against Djokovic]”.

What fans may not know is that his second victory over Djokovic at this year’s Rolex Monte Carlo Masters was much more difficult than the score of 6-3, 6-4.

To understand why, one needs to go back to the Miami Open at ETA in March. Tabilo began experiencing pain in his left wrist, which led him to begin bandaging it with tape. Lefties prefer solving such problems.

But after Tabilow beat Djokovic in Monte Carlo before losing to Grigor Dimitrov in three sets, the pain became so severe that the Chilean was tested.

“I had an MRI and it was almost a stress fracture,” Tabilow said. “So it was a really good win [against Djokovic]”.

This is far from the only injury he has suffered this season. Tabilow suffered a five-centimetre tear in his abdomen after Roland Garros and sprained his ankle at Winston-Salem.

“My problem is, I really like to dig it out and not tell anyone about my pain. Ever since I was little, I’ve always wanted to play, so I’ve been building a tolerance, so anything that I feel a little bit painful about, I don’t think is that big of a deal,” Tabilow said. “So until I felt pain, that’s when it hurt more than usual. A few years ago at Roland Garros, I trained with appendicitis for a few days and I didn’t know, I thought it was just a stomachache, so [became] peritonitis. It’s just a battle of knowing when to stop. “

Tabilo dropped to 126th place in August, but quickly bounced back with a string of good results. The 28-year-old reached the finals of the ATP Challenger Tour in Guangzhou (Huangpu) and then won the ATP 250 title in Chengdu as a qualifier. In that match, he fought hard in the final set tie-break against Lloyd Harris in the final qualifying round and then defeated Lorenzo Musetti in the final set tie-break.

“I’m really happy to be able to compete. It’s been a tough year with injuries and everything, so it’s been hard to find a rhythm,” Tabilow said. “I feel like I’m slowly getting there, even though it’s the last game of the year. But hopefully I can use this opportunity to do a good pre-season and carry that into 2026.”

The three-time ATP Tour champion hopes he can go one better with his third win over Djokovic. How does he enjoy success against the Serbs?

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve been struggling with that myself,” Tabilow said. “But I feel subconsciously, because I watched him play on TV almost every time when I was little, that maybe you plan how to play him, or you know how he plays, and you just go out there and try to relax during the game, and you know you have nothing to lose, so just try to play what you want to do.”