Novak Djokovic's next opponent is his kryptonite and could copy Andy Murray

Novak Djokovic faces one of the few active tennis rivals he has a losing record against in his opening match at the Hellenic Championship in Athens, Greece. The Serb has been drawn to face Alejandro Tabilo, who he has a 2-0 losing record versus, on Tuesday. Djokovic was beaten by Tabilo in straight sets on the clay in Rome last year and Monte Carlo this year.

Djokovic labelled himself "horrible" in his last meeting with Tabilo, which ended 6-3, 6-4 to the Chilean. The 24-time Grand Slam champion said: "I knew I'm going to have a tough opponent and I knew I'm going to probably play pretty bad. But this bad, I didn't expect. A horrible feeling to play this way."

And Tabilo also got the better of Djokovic in Italy last year, a match in which the then-world No.1 Djokovic claimed he was still struggling with the after-effects of being hit in the head by a bottle. He lost 6-2, 6-3 the day after being struck while signing autographs.

He said: "That has really impacted me a lot. After that I got medical care, [and went] through half-an-hour [to] an hour of nausea, dizziness and blood. I had headaches. The way I felt on the court today was just completely like a different player entered into my shoes."

That was Tabilo's first-ever win against a top-10-ranked player. The 28-year-old is now ranked 82nd in the world with his career-highest rank having been 19th, which he achieved in July 2024 after winning the Mallorca Championships.

The Chilean No.1 enjoyed a career-high at the Italian Open after beating Djokovic, reaching the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 event. And he comes into this tournament as a recent title-winner having won the Chengdu Open, beating Lorenzo Musetti in the final of the ATP 250 event in China.

Tabilo won his opener against Australian Adam Walton 7-6, 6-7, 7-5 and faces a Djokovic who is looking to bounce back from his Shanghai Masters disappointment last month. The Serb, struggling with a glute injury, lost to world No.204 Valentin Vacherot in the semi-finals in China.

Victory for Tabilo again would see him become just the seventh player in history to win three or more head-to-head matches in a row against the 38-year-old. Andy Murray did so between 2008 and 2009 including the Cincinnati Masters and Miami Open finals, while Jannik Sinner managed the same achievement across 2023 and 2024 which included the Australian Open semi-finals and Shanghai Masters final.

Andy Roddick, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are the other players to manage the feat with all achieving at least four consecutive wins over Djokovic. Nadal is the only man to win five in a row against him, which he did in 2008 and 2009. That run included the finals of the Monte Carlo Masters and the Rome Masters.

Djokovic is 35-11 for the season having won his 100th ATP Tour title at the Geneva Open. He lost in the final of the Miami Open to Jakub Mensik as well as falling at the final-four stage of the Australian Open to Alexander Zverev, the French Open and Wimbledon to Jannik Sinner and the US Open to Carlos Alcaraz.