It was supposed to be a formality. Djokovic came into the US Open as the No. 4 seed chasing his 25th Grand Slam title, and Mariano Navone came in unranked with zero ATP-level titles to his name. But by the time the humidity and a brutal 4-hour, 36-minute night session were through, it was Navone celebrating and Djokovic staring down a first-round exit for the first time in his career.
Roof gonna greatly help Novak here. Looked very bothered by the humidity
The conditions were an early flag. Barstool's Eric Hubbs was pointing out how bothered Djokovic looked by the humidity before the match ever got out of hand, and he wasn't alone in wondering if the roof situation on Armstrong should've been handled differently once the rain got involved. Djokovic still looked like the better player for stretches, winning the second and third sets to push the match to a fourth.
Still don’t think Navone has what it takes to beat Novak (could easily be wrong) but what this does is fuck Djokovic if he does win. Any extra energy at slams early is killer at his age.
Then his body gave out. Per ESPN, Djokovic threw up on court at least once and later appeared to be cramping, grabbing at his left foot as he needed a medical timeout between the fourth and fifth sets for pills and a lower back massage. What looked like a straightforward path to the second round turned into a full collapse — he dropped the last two sets 6-2, 6-1 as Navone closed it out.
Father Time might be catching up to Novak Djokovic Defeated in the First Round of the US Open…
The numbers make it historic for the wrong reasons. Djokovic had never lost in the first round of the US Open in his career, going 19-0 before Sunday, and the defeat snapped a 78-match winning streak in Grand Slam opening rounds — the longest such run by any man in the Open era. It's also his earliest Grand Slam exit in two decades, and it's set to knock him outside the ATP Top 10 for the first time since 2018.
That's the backdrop for the reaction rolling in from Barstool's tennis desk. Hubbs had been half-joking about Djokovic's wife going through it as the match dragged deep into the night, but by the finish the tone had shifted from jokes to something more serious about the 39-year-old's future.
Djokovic has told Father Time to fuck off way longer than just about anybody, but I think he finally got the hint.
Djokovic has been fending off the age narrative for years now — he made the Australian Open final and the Wimbledon semis earlier this year — but a cramping, vomiting, first-round loss to an unranked opponent is the kind of result that's hard to explain away. He'll head home from Flushing wondering if the 25th major is still out there, or if Sunday night was the sign everyone's been waiting for.