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 ****** le.
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.
#djokovic #make
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.
#djokovic #make
2 months ago
