Novak Djokovic felt the water bottle incident affected him during the Italian Open loss

Novak Djokovic was defeated by Chilean Alejandro Tabilo within 68 minutes in the round of 32 of the Italian Open on Sunday.

Djokovic admitted after the unexpected defeat that he had not felt well during the match and he blamed the incident on Friday when a fan accidentally dropped a water bottle on his head. The hit knocked Djokovic to the ground and hit him harder than he realized.

He plans to have scans done to ensure no further damage has been done.

“That really touched me,” Djokovic said on Sunday. “Afterwards I received medical attention and had nausea, dizziness and blood for half an hour, an hour. I was able to sleep well, I had a headache. The next day, or yesterday, everything was fine, so I thought it was OK.” Maybe it’s OK, maybe it’s not.

Regardless of what influenced his performance, Djokovic felt out of rhythm on the court Sunday during his 6-2, 6-3 loss to the 29th seed.

“Today on the court I felt like another player had walked in my shoes,” Djokovic said. “Just no rhythm, no tempo, no balance at all on any beat. That’s a bit worrying.”

This was Djokovic’s last tournament before the French Open, which begins next Monday, May 20th. He enters the event with less confidence after Sunday, so it may not be the easiest path for him on the way to his potential 25th Grand Slam title.

“Everything has to get better so that I at least have a chance of winning it,” Djokovic said.