Novak Djokovic has survived almost everything this sport can throw at a champion. Not this. Not on this night.
Under the lights in New York, on a Sunday that bled into midnight, the 39-year-old was dragged into a four-and-a-half-hour street fight by Mariano Navone and, for the first time in his career, lost in the opening round of the US Open.
The scoreline will live long: Navone d. Djokovic 7-6 (5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.
The story behind it was even more brutal.
A Champion’s Body Says No
Djokovic has built a legacy on outlasting opponents when the air gets heavy and the rallies get longer. This time, it was his body that cracked.
He vomited on court at least once. His left foot cramped. His lower back seized badly enough that he needed a medical timeout between the fourth and fifth sets. The shoulder joined the rebellion late. By the end, every movement looked like a negotiation.
“I didn’t enjoy myself,” Djokovic said afterward. “I think it was obvious that it was an awful feeling on the court for me.
“It’s something that I’ve been carrying, unfortunately, pretty much every match this year: vomiting, throwing up, a serious issue there. Then my whole body starts to collapse, basically cramping and pain. Yeah, the back just gave up in the end and shoulder, and I couldn’t close it out.”
The words matched what everyone had just seen: a 24-time Grand Slam champion trying to will himself through a match his body no longer wanted to play.
Match Turns on a Knife Edge
Early on, this looked like another Djokovic slow burn. Navone edged the opening set in a tense tiebreak, but the Serbian responded like he has for nearly two decades, tightening his grip, raising his level, and clawing his way into a two-sets-to-one lead with 7-5 and 6-4 sets that felt familiar, almost inevitable.
Then the momentum snapped.
Where Djokovic usually prowls, he began to shuffle. The serve lost bite. The footwork, once elastic, turned heavy. Navone sensed it and pounced.
The Argentine stormed through the fourth set 6-2, ripping through rallies as Djokovic’s movement deteriorated. The fifth was harsher still: 6-1, a scoreline that looked surreal next to the name on the other side of the net.
This wasn’t a tactical collapse. It was physical. Just as in his early exit from Cincinnati earlier this month, Djokovic’s body simply refused to follow the script.
A Landmark Exit
For a player who has turned the four majors into his personal calendar, this defeat cuts deep.
It is his earliest exit at a Slam since the 2006 Australian Open, when Paul Goldstein knocked him out before the world had any real idea what was coming. Since then, Djokovic has built a career on making the first week of majors feel like a formality. Not anymore.
He arrived in New York still chasing history, hunting a 25th major title after his last triumph here in 2023. That quest now stalls at Flushing Meadows’ first hurdle, undone by a younger opponent and a body that would not cooperate.
The record books will show a first-round loss. The images that linger will be of a great champion bent over at the back of the court, fighting nausea, stretching a cramping leg, asking his body for one more comeback and finally hearing the answer no.
New Faces Hit New Highs
While Djokovic’s night ended in pain, others rode a very different wave into New York.
Ignacio Buse arrives at the US Open as the youngest champion in Winston-Salem Open history. The 22-year-old swept past Arthur Fery 6-3, 6-2 to claim the ATP 250 title, the second tour-level trophy of his career. It caps a season that has already pushed him to a career-high ranking of No. 30 and stamped him as one of the more dangerous floaters in any draw.
On the women’s side, Diane Parry touched a long-awaited milestone. The Frenchwoman lifted the first WTA title of her career in Monterrey, winning a roller-coaster final 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 over Elise Mertens at a WTA 500 event that tested every part of her game and nerve.
Parry had been 0-5 in tour-level semifinals before this week. That weight vanished as she took out fifth seed Ann Li to reach her first final, then beat Mertens for the second time in two weeks to claim the trophy.
Her run in Monterrey was no soft draw. Parry stacked up five Top 50 victories, dispatching Mertens, Li, Clara Tauson, Oleksandra Oliynykova, and Donna Vekic. She doesn’t just arrive in New York with a title; she arrives with a résumé that demands attention.
A Draw Blown Wide Open
Djokovic’s departure in round one rips a hole in the men’s draw and hands belief to players like Buse, who are pushing into the sport’s top tier with increasing confidence. Parry, armed with her breakthrough week, steps into the US Open with the look of a player who no longer wonders if she belongs at the sharp end of big events.
One legend’s campaign ends before it even begins. A new wave, already gathering speed, now has a little more room to run.
