World number one Novak Djo-kovic, of Serbia, was reduced to tears after suffering a shock first round 7-6 7-6 loss to Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro in the men’s Olympic tennis tournament on Sunday.
Djokovic has dominated the men’s game in recent years and had made it a priority to win an Olympic gold medal, the only major prize that still eludes him.
“No doubt this is one of the toughest losses in my life and in my career,” a distraught Djokovic told reporters.
“It’s not easy to handle, especially now, just after the wounds are still fresh.”
After winning this year’s Australian and French Open titles, Djokovic was the favourite to add Olympic gold to his 12 grand slam titles and Del Potro was as surprised as anyone to see his opponent go out so early.
“I didn’t expect to beat Novak Djokovic tonight,” said the 2009 US Open champion, who has been battling a wrist injury for much of the season and is ranked 141st in the world.
The 27-year-old Argentine crunched 29 forehand winners in comparison to just seven by Djokovic, who lost a bronze medal match to Del Porto at the London Olympics four years ago.
Del Potro, who was once as high as fourth place in the world rankings, said the performance against Djokovic gave him hope of fully overcoming his injury nightmare.
“I felt once again I had the capability to play against the best in the world,” he said.
Djokovic will get another chance to experience the Rio atmosphere when he teams up with Nenad Zimonjic to play Brazilian duo Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares in a second round men’s doubles match.
Djokovic will be 33 by the time of the Tokyo 2020 Games meaning the Rio men’s doubles could be his best hope of achieving Olympic success.
Elsewhere, three-time Olympic women’s doubles champions Serena and Venus Williams crashed out of the Rio Games tournament in the first round as the American sisters’ unbeaten run, dating back to Sydney 2000, came to a surprising end.
The top seeds fell 6-3 6-4 to Czech pair Barbora Strycova and Lucie Safarova, ending any hopes of claiming a third successive Olympics doubles crown.
The sisters won their first doubles gold in Sydney but a knee injury prevented Serena from playing at Athens in 2004. They have also won 14 women’s doubles grand slam titles, to go along with a combined tally of 29 major singles crowns.
Second round: (Men) Del Potro bt Sousa 6-3, 1-6, 6-3; Mueller bt Tsonga 6-4 6-3; (Women) Kvitova bt Wozniacki 6-2 6-4.