It seemed to be all set up for Novak Djokovic to make history and win his 25th career Grand Slam at the US Open in New York over the next few weeks. Instead, the all-time great’s tournament is already over after opening Sunday at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Nobody gave Mariano Navone much of a chance to knock off Djokovic to kick off the US Open, yet that’s exactly what he did. After going down two sets to one, Navone battled back to commandingly win the fourth and fifth sets 6-2 and 6-1, respectively, ending the legend’s quest for greatness, for now.
How did he do it? Navone certainly gave it everything he had and deserves credit for that, but on the flip side, Djokovic wasn’t right from the start.
Looking sick to his stomach, vomiting on the sidelines, cramping up, you name it, the Joker was going through the ringer. It was an extremely similar outing to his second-round loss at the Cincinnati Open several weeks ago, and Djokovic himself is struggling to find answers on why it keeps happening.
“I think it was obvious that I felt terrible on court. It’s something that, unfortunately, has accompanied me in practically every match this year. Vomiting, retching… it’s a serious problem. Then my whole body started to give out, with cramps and pain. In the end, even my back and shoulder gave out, and I couldn’t finish the match. I was up by a break in the fourth set, but I struggled a lot from the fourth game of the match. Again, I don’t want to downplay his victory too much. Congratulations to him. He’s a good guy, a fighter. But I didn’t enjoy it… I don’t know. I don’t want to go into too much detail right now. I’m just trying to really understand what’s going on and how far I can go with that,”
The 39-year-old Djokovic has gone 14-7 in singles matches, though he remains without a tournament win this tennis season.
Djokovic will now have to wait until the Australian Open towards the start of the new season in January to make an attempt at claiming that 25th Grand Slam title.
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see what he participates in moving forward and whether he’s able to push past these physical ailments heading into 2027.
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