Zizou Bergs sends message to his idol Novak Djokovic on social media after losing to him in Shanghai

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Zizou Bergs has enjoyed a brilliant week at the Shanghai Masters but proved to be no match for the legendary figure that is Novak Djokovic.

The Belgian was dumped out of the tournament at the quarterfinal stage, with Bergs delivering a bizarre comment to Djokovic after losing to him.

Djokovic admitted he struggled a little bit during the match, but you’d have never guessed, given he came through in straight sets, winning 6-3, 7-5.

After the match, Djokovic issued an update on his fitness and the challenge for him as the tournament progresses to the final stages might not have anything to do with how he’s hitting the ball.

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Zizou Bergs sends message to Novak Djokovic

The bizarre nature of Bergs’ comment about idolising Djokovic was somewhat strange, and he will need to snap out of that if this sort of thing is going to become the norm.

Players have to have the belief that they can beat these top players and the challenge going forward is to conquer the man playing on the other side of the net.

Bergs sent Djokovic a message on Instagram after the match which read: “Not easy playing Novak Djokovic but damn we had fun on court today.

“Very happy with our week here but definitely happy for my team as well. Through ups and downs.”

Bergs can look back on solid 2025

Bergs isn’t used to making this stage of Masters 1000 events, and as a result, perhaps he was a little overwhelmed coming up against one of the game’s greats.

Bergs has enjoyed a solid 2025, and before the tournament started, he sat at number 44 in the world rankings, with that set to rise to number 28 unless Arthur Rinderknech wins the Shanghai Masters.

At 26, Bergs feels like a bit of a late bloomer and reaching the quarterfinals should give him some confidence going into the final stages of the year.

Idolising Djokovic is not necessarily uncommon on the ATP Tour but thinking something and saying something to the man himself are two completely different things.

Bergs is a solid player and if he’s to truly start beating players of Djokovic’s quality, he needs to believe it and not show them quite so much respect.