Player Features

Nardi: 'Usually I'm not Luca Nardi. I am the guy that beat Novak Djokovic'

When Luca Nardi arrived at Indian Wells for this year’s BNP Paribas Open, he took a look at an ongoing practice inside Stadium 1 to relive the most memorable moment of his career. One year ago, the Italian stunned Novak Djokovic at the season’s first ATP Masters 1000 event.

“As soon as I was there, I started feeling some very good emotions. It's a very, very nice feeling to come back here,” Nardi told ATPTour.com. “Usually I'm not Luca Nardi. I am the guy that beat Novak Djokovic. Maybe they don't know the name, but I am the guy that beat Djokovic.”

Nardi famously has had a poster of Djokovic in his bedroom since he was a kid. The Italian confirmed on Tuesday that it remains there.

The memories of his shocking win against the former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings will be etched in Nardi’s mind forever. The 21-year-old vividly recalls believing he would make a mistake in trying to close out the match.

“The match point I thought that I could make a double fault, which I usually do,” Nardi said, cracking a smile. “And I played an ace.”

 

Game, set and match. Nardi ousted the five-time Indian Wells champion 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

“[It was] very crazy. Going to the net with him and knowing that I won and he lost, it was something that I could never imagine,” Nardi said. “So it was a very nice moment.”

Just a few weeks later, Nardi won an ATP Challenger Tour event in Naples. But after Monte-Carlo in April, he did not win consecutive matches at any level until September.

“Actually, after that match, [my play was] not that good,” Nardi said. “But in the end of the year and in the last months, for sure I've [been] playing better. And yeah for sure, the ranking is going higher.”

Nardi claimed Challenger glory again to close his season in Rovereto and made another final earlier this year in Koblenz. He has carried that success to the ATP Tour, already winning the same number of tour-level matches two months into 2025 (4) as he did in all of 2024.

“I changed my racquet actually in the past two weeks, so not too long ago,” said Nardi, who explained it was to the balance of his frame. “It's the same racquet, but I made some changes, and it is helping me a lot. I'm serving a bit better.”

Fresh off reaching the Dubai quarter-finals as a lucky loser, Nardi will try to repeat his standout Indian Wells performance from 2024, when he made the third round. At a career-high PIF ATP Ranking of No. 67, the 21-year-old will face 2021 champion Cameron Norrie on Wednesday in the first round.

“It's a place where I've played good tennis,” Nardi said. “So I think that I can make a good result as well this year. So I can't wait to play tomorrow.”