For the primary time in over 20 years, Novak Djokovic misplaced his first-round match at a Slam. On Sunday he fell in 5 units to world No. 49 Mariano Navone, a 25-year-old clay-court specialist showing in simply his third-ever U.S. Open important draw. In different phrases, the kind of opponent Djokovic has made a profession of dispatching, even when it did generally take him a leisurely 5 units to do it.
On this late interval of his profession, Djokovic has professed his love of the best-of-five format, which affords him time to recalibrate. His comeback after a sizzling begin from a plucky youth has performed out so many instances that there is an air of inevitability within the stadium as he goes about his enterprise, overcoming his aches and steadying the scoreboard. However this was not the Djokovic of matches previous, and there was no air of inevitability Sunday night time—only a grotesque scene. The 39-year-old labored, vomited, and cried en path to dropping 7-6(5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Not for the reason that 2006 Australian Open—a event he’d go on to win 10 instances—has Djokovic exited a Slam within the first spherical. He’d additionally by no means misplaced in the united statesOpen’s first spherical earlier than. However this loss was not with out latest precedent. Djokovic had struggled with the warmth on the Cincinnati Open in mid-August, dropping his first match there to Thiago Agustin Tirante: coincidentally, one other 25-year-old Argentine then ranked round No. 50. Throughout that match, Djokovic appeared to vomit and took a medical timeout. After that loss, he referenced an unspecified well being situation “that has been bothering me for the previous couple of years,” making it arduous for him to play in sizzling and humid climate. To one of the best of my information, that was his first-ever public reference to such a situation.
Throughout yesterday’s U.S. Open loss, Djokovic’s struggles had been extra extreme. He vomited repeatedly, took drugs supplied by medical workers, and acquired therapy on his again from a physio after dropping the fourth set. He was not aggressive within the fifth set, barely capable of serve or transfer. He wept after holding serve at 0-3, and wouldn’t win one other sport within the match. On the web, he smiled and congratulated Navone, who stayed calm regardless of the weird circumstances, retaining the ball in play and transferring his broken opponent across the court docket.
After the match, Djokovic advised reporters that he was struggling from the fourth sport onward. “It is one thing that I have been carrying, sadly, just about each match this 12 months,” he mentioned. “Vomiting, throwing up, a critical difficulty there. Then my entire physique begins to break down, mainly cramping and ache. Yeah, the again simply gave up ultimately, and shoulder, and I could not shut it out, [leading by a] break up within the fourth.”
Retirement can’t be too far out, however this loss misrepresents how a lot of a contender Djokovic nonetheless is. As a part-time tennis participant who skips most tour occasions and pops in for the Slams, he nonetheless has an astounding physique of labor. Earlier than the U.S. Open loss, he had reached at the least the semifinals at six of his final seven majors, together with his latest Roland-Garros defeat to Joao Fonseca because the one exception. In his ongoing pursuit of a twenty fifth Slam title, he follows a sample: Beat everybody else within the discipline, then lose to Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz. In that regard, this U.S. Open introduced an actual alternative for Djokovic, as a result of Sinner is absent with a knee damage, and Alcaraz’s kind is unknown as he seems in his first occasion after 4 months off with a wrist damage.
Previously, Djokovic appeared to relish these prolonged comebacks towards greener opponents. Final night time, whilst he received the second and third units, he was visibly depressing the entire runtime. “I just about despised each second that I spent on the court docket for that,” Djokovic mentioned, although he famous that he was appreciative of the fan assist when he was making an attempt to get again into the match.
There have been certainly supportive moments, however it will be dishonest to say that the entire crowd was appropriately locked in on the agonizing drama unfolding down there, as a result of perpetual incongruity between on-court motion and crowd habits in an Arthur Ashe Stadium night time session. If an attendee got here to this match for the Honey Deuces and vibes, they may have been shocked to discover a cursed historical beast crying and dying. A timeless champion was on the court docket confronting his innermost demons and the restrictions of the human physique, and folks within the stands had been simply buzzed and their telephones. This tradition and this explicit event are getting fairly bizarre.
