India, May 2 -- "You can imagine," Novak Djokovic said, resting back on his chair moments after losing his Madrid opener and days before his Rome withdrawal, "twenty years I didn't experience what I'm experiencing in the last 12 months. Early exits, and way too many."

Over those 20 years, Djokovic surged to levels that were so unshakably consistent that it personified mechanical excellence. Across the last 12 months, there were evident signs of slide and rust. In the last month, it has been on an alarming freefall.

Last year, the Paris Olympics gold medallist was struggling to win titles. This year, the 24-time Grand Slam champion is struggling to win matches.

Djokovic is set to head to Roland Garros later this month having not won a match on clay. He lost his opening duels in Madrid and Monte Carlo and, earlier this week, announced he was pulling out of the Rome tournament. Add the defeat in the Miami final and make it three consecutive losses for a champion who, a decade ago, went an entire season losing just six matches (and winning 82).

That's not even the most shocking stat, by the way.

The last time Djokovic lost three matches on the bounce was in 2018. That's happened twice in 2025 already; Australian Open-Doha-Indian Wells being the other tumbling troika.

The last time Djokovic exited a tournament from his opening battle was in 2022, in Monte Carlo. That's happened four times in 2025 already; all in his last five tournament outings.

Djokovic, 37, termed this nightmarish stretch a "new reality" for him.

"Just trying to win a match or two, you know, not really thinking about getting far in the tournament. It's a completely different feeling from what I had 20-plus years of professional tennis. A challenge for me mentally to face these kind of sensations on the court," he said after his Madrid defeat.

For a good part of those 20-plus years, the Serb seldom had questions about the level of tennis hanging over his head. If physically fit and mentally fresh, Djokovic dished out a certain quality standard that would be good enough to go past a vast percentage of players on the tour and place him deep into tournaments almost on autopilot.

That level, with an ageing body, has almost crash-landed over the past month on the red dirt. His on-court movement appears a touch slower, the returns less daunting and the strokes more faulty. Against Matteo Arnaldi in Madrid, he dished out 32 unforced errors. The count was 29 against Alejandro Tabilo in Monte Carlo, a performance Djokovic self-assessed to be "horrible".

That's not just a concerning look for the present and future of a modern-day tennis great, but also for the most exciting coaching partnership in recent times. The Andy Murray-Djokovic combo was off to a blossoming start at the Australian Open (Djokovic beat Carlos Alcaraz before retiring in the semi-final against Alexander Zverev) but has since faded to some gloomy clouds of doubt.

"The level of tennis is not where I'd like it to be," Djokovic said in Madrid. "Things are different... my strokes, my body, my movement."

It is making the world No.5 go down to the kind of players he would otherwise have little trouble breezing past. It's no longer about running into a Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer or a Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz; it's now about being halted by Reilly Opelka (ranked 293) in Brisbane, Matteo Berrettini (35) in Doha, Botin van de Zandschulp (85) in Indian Wells, Jakub Mensik (54) in Miami, Tabilo (32) in Monte Carlo and Arnaldi (44) in Madrid.

"Lots of different players who he wouldn't normally lose to," Annabel Croft, former British women's No.1, told Sky Sports in Madrid. "I don't quite know what's going on, whether there's distractions, or he's just not happy, or he's lost confidence. But whatever's happening, he's not looking in great shape heading towards the French Open."

For a while now, Djokovic has maintained that his priority remains the Grand Slams and finding his peak level there. In that sense, even though the 24-time champion hasn't won a Slam since 2023, he has made at least the second week in them (except last year's US Open). He pressed clutch at the Paris Olympics, and zoomed to the top of the podium.

Champions like him know when and how to step up. Currently, though, the tennis giant finds himself at one of the lowest points of his career. Djokovic has accepted he is not among the favourites for the French Open. And his new reality.

"That's, I guess, the circle of life and of the career. Eventually, it was going to happen," he said. "I'm trying to use it as a driving force for the future."