Novak Djokovic sent a classy message to Jack Draper after his defeat to the British star in a pulsating fourth round contest at the 2026 Indian Wells Open.<\/p>\n
Draper<\/a> defeated Djokovic<\/a> 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) in two hours and 35 minutes on Wednesday to progress to the quarter-finals at the Masters 1000 event.<\/p>\n The world No 14 is the defending champion in Indian Wells, having claimed the biggest title of his career so far in Tennis Paradise last year.<\/p>\n It was just the second-ever encounter between Draper and Djokovic, with the legendary Serbian having won a four-set opening round match at Wimbledon in 2021.<\/p>\n Djokovic, the world No 3, was chasing his first Indian Wells title since 2016 and sixth overall.<\/p>\n In a post on Instagram, Djokovic commented on the conclusion of his campaign in the Californian desert and expressed his respect for Draper.<\/p>\n \u201cA tough night in the desert,\u201d the 24-time Grand Slam champion wrote.<\/p>\n Jack Draper makes \u2018struggling with confidence\u2019 comment after Novak Djokovic Indian Wells Open win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic \u2018ran out of gas\u2019, Naomi Osaka \u2018tricked\u2019, Emma Raducanu \u2018one-dimensional\u2019 \u2013 Indian Wells Open roundup<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cRespect to @jackdraper, you deserve it. Great to see you back on court fighting fit. Keep it going.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd to everyone who supported me here this week, thank you for the energy. No place like tennis paradise. See you soon.\u201d<\/p>\n In his post-match press conference, Djokovic admitted he had a \u201cbitter feeling\u201d when asked to assess his tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I don\u2019t know. I mean, bitter feeling right now, losing a match like this,\u201d said the 38-year-old.<\/p>\n \u201cBut proud of myself for fighting and really giving it all on the court. That\u2019s for sure. That\u2019s the one thing that I\u2019ll take as a highlight, you know, just the fact of not giving up and trying.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, obviously I lost to a great player, and it was really such an even match throughout the entire two-and-a-half hours.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, yeah, just a bit disappointed, of course, with getting off the court, fresh off the court. It is okay. I mean, I wish I could have done better, but it was a good fight.\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic is next expected to compete at the Miami Open \u2014 the second leg of the US Sunshine Double in March after Indian Wells.<\/p>\n The tennis icon is on the entry list for the ATP Masters 1000 tournament<\/a>, where main draw play will take place from 17 to 29 March.<\/p>\n He was a runner-up in Miami in 2025 and has won six titles at the event \u2014 a record he shares with Andre Agassi.<\/p>\n Draper will face world No 11 Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-finals in Indian Wells on Thursday.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Indian Wells Open: Novak Djokovic highlights crucial moment that \u2018cost\u2019 him during Jack Draper defeat<\/a> The post Novak Djokovic sends telling message to Jack Draper after losing Indian Wells Open blockbuster<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic sent a classy message to Jack Draper after his defeat to the British star in a pulsating fourth round contest at the 2026 Indian Wells Open. Draper defeated Djokovic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) in two hours and 35 minutes on Wednesday to progress to the quarter-finals at the Masters 1000 event. The world No […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Indian Wells News<\/h2>\n
What next for Novak Djokovic?<\/h2>\n
What next for Jack Draper?<\/h2>\n
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