Very few ATP players in history can say they have an unbeaten record against Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic was stunned by Valentin Vacherot in his most recent ATP match at the Shanghai Masters, when the Monegasque was ranked outside the top 200.
Despite being beaten by the world number 204 at the time, Djokovic has lost to a player ranked lower than Vacherot in 2025.
Both of these players have an unbeaten record against Djokovic, and that is the same for another ATP player who has now tumbled down the rankings.
Taro Daniel falls to his lowest ranking since 2012 following a poor run of form
Djokovic suffered the worst injury of his career during the 2017 season, for which he required surgery in January 2018.
The Serbian’s first match after this surgery came at Indian Wells, where he would play Japanese player Taro Daniel for the first time.
Daniel was world 109 at the time and had to come through qualifying to get into the main draw of Indian Wells.
Despite being the huge underdog in this match, Daniel was able to beat multiple-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic, 7-6(3) 4-6 6-1.
Later that year, Daniel would win his first career title at the Istanbul Open and six years later he reached his career-high ranking of world number 58.
However, since reaching that ranking in January 2024, Daniel has struggled to find form and has subsequently suffered a huge decline down the rankings.
Daniel was on the brink of falling outside the top 100 at the end of 2024, and his form has only worsened this season.
Having won only 12 of 43 matches this year, Daniel has faced a big drop in his ranking, despite recently reaching the quarterfinals of the ATP 250 tournament in Chengdu.
After dropping another 49 points from his ranking, Daniel has fallen outside the top 300 to world number 326.
This is Daniel’s lowest ranking since 2012, when he was just a teenager, and he will now not even be able to get into qualifying for the Australian Open.
Daniel has also lost his most recent match since dropping down the rankings, having been beaten by James Duckworth in the first round of the ATP Challenger tournament in Taipei.
What Novak Djokovic said was ‘very weird’ about his match against Taro Daniel
Unsurprisingly after he was beaten by Daniel at Indian Wells in 2018, Djokovic was asked many questions about just what happened.
When speaking in his post-match press conference, Djokovic did not want to take anything away from his opponent, but admitted that he did find something weird about the match.
“I’d like to congratulate my opponent for fighting and showing great, great spirit on the court,” Djokovic said at the time.
“For me it felt like first match I ever played on the tour. Very weird. I mean, I just completely lost rhythm, everything. Just struggled also a little bit with the health the last couple of weeks.
“But yeah, it was just — I was grateful to be out on the court after surgery that quickly. But at the same time, just didn’t feel good at all (smiling).”
Djokovic and Daniel have not played each other since then and it does not seem like they are likely to meet anytime soon after the latest update in the ATP rankings.
Daniel has two more Challenger tournaments on his schedule this year, while Djokovic faces a tough opener in Athens before potentially playing the ATP Finals.
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