Novak Djokovic, the 2008 Indian Wells winner, was defeated by former top-five Ivan Ljubicic 7-5, 6-3 in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open in the match that lasted 1 hour and 44 minutes.

Novak won their past five meetings, including victory two weeks ago in the Dubai quarter-finals, but could not maintain the streak. He admitted that he came to the desert mentally drained after winning the Dubai title followed by an emotional Davis Cup victory in Belgrade over the US.

“This is a tournament where I definitely didn't feel comfortable on the court,” said Djokovic, who had saved three match points in his third-round match. “It's not because of the tournament itself. It's just because I had a very tiring couple of weeks coming from Davis Cup, which was emotionally very exhausting for me.


“I am not happy with the overall performance that I had in this tournament, because I know I could have played better and could have done better. But under decent circumstances I still made it to the fourth round, which is quite okay.”

Ljubicic who sent down 13 aces, said he was delighted to end a five-match skid against Djokovic, calling some of those defeats "brutal".

“My serve helped me, especially in difficult moments,” said Ljubicic. “Especially I felt in the second set I was serving even better than the first set. But also two weeks ago in Dubai I was serving unbelievably. You can't beat Novak only with a serve, but it does help you a lot if you can get a lot of free points off that shot.”


(via BNP Paribas Open, photo/Getty Images)

Novak Djokovic Out of Indian Wells