NEW YORK — Novak Djokovic, despite being 39 years old, had as good a chance as anyone to make a deep run at the US Open and finally capture that still elusive 25th Grand Slam title.
On center stage at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where he has captured four US Open championships, including his last Grand Slam triumph in 2023, the greatest men's Grand Slam winner in history looked lethargic, moping around, taking pills, throwing up, walking as slowly as he could to the sideline, and was sometimes downright disinterested, against Mariano Navone, and was stunned in the first round, 7-6(5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, snapping a 78 first-round Grand Slam match winning streak and bringing a stunning, quick end to his tournament with the questions again if he has much
left in the tank.
Djokovic’s opening-round exit was the first at a Grand Slam since the Australian Open in 2006, a tournament he would go on to win 10 times. It’s also his first loss in the two rounds at the US Open, having won his previous 37 such matches.
The four-hour, 36-minute first-round match finally ended when the fourth-seeded Djokovic's weak return across the net was returned and could do nothing to stop it.
For the first 30 minutes, Djokovic certainly looked the part of a player who would make quick work of the No. 49-ranked player in the world, sprinting out to a 3-0 and 4-1 lead in the first set, before falling apart under a hail of sloppy play, piling up the unforced errors seemingly on every return.
Navone broke Djokovic twice after that big lead and gained momentum with a powerful ace for the equalizer at 4 games each. Navone, who is one of 11 Argentinean men in the field, took charge and took the set in a tiebreak, again with the misery ended, the first set when he hit Navone’s return into the net.
Neither man would break over the first 10 games of the second set until Djokovic powered through to earn the momentum, winning eight straight points to even the match. But Djokovic willed his way through the third set with another breakthrough, taking the final two games and imploring the Ashe crowd to get louder.
Navone was certainly game throughout, making Djokovic work for everything he got, zapping his energy with long, extended rallies, multiple times totaling more than 20 shots. But sometimes he could not take full advantage of Djokovic's 70 unforced errors, winning only six of the 17 break chances he had, though he earned a huge break in the fourth set to take command.
While Djovokic moves on/was eliminated, questions about his health will continue to linger, especially after he vomited during the third set against Navone. He dealt with vomiting during his second-round loss to Thiago Agustin Tirante at the Cincinnati Open earlier this month.
Navone, who made history in 2024 by becoming the first man in the Open Era to be seeded in his Grand Slam main draw debut at the French Open, will play the winner of Matteo Berrettini and Stan Wawrinka in the second round on Sept. 2.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Four-time US Open champion Novak Djokovic ousted in first round by Mariano Navone
