Novak Djokovic's US Open Upset: A Historic Loss to Mariano Navone
Novak Djokovic walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium chasing history. He left it bent over a courtside towel box, emptied out, beaten, and facing the most uncomfortable question of his career: was that his last swing at a Grand Slam?
On a humid New York night that turned cruel, the 39-year-old fell in the first round of the US Open to Argentine Mariano Navone, ranked No 49 in the world, in a five-set marathon that felt more like a slow unravelling than a classic comeback story. The scoreline – 7-6 (7-5) 5-7 4-6 6-2 6-1 – tells you it went the distance. The body language told you Djokovic never really got there.
The match lasted four hours and 36 minutes, the longest opening encounter of any major in Djokovic’s career. It also marked his earliest exit at a Slam since the 2006 Australian Open. A generational bookend: from the teenager trying to break through to the legend now fighting his own body.
A record chase derailed
This was supposed to be the start of a march towards a record 25th Grand Slam singles title and a fifth crown in New York. Instead, Navone, a 25-year-old who only claimed his first ATP singles title earlier this year, ripped up the script and exposed a champion running on fumes in oppressive conditions.
Djokovic came in with a fearsome five-set record: 42 wins, 12 defeats. Navone’s? Zero from four. The numbers usually point one way when the match stretches long on a big stage. Not this time.
From early on, something was wrong. Djokovic had already flagged a “health issue” after his defeat to Thiago Tirante in Cincinnati two weeks earlier, an issue he said he has been dealing with “for many years” and which flares in heat and humidity. In Ohio, he ended on his knees, sick into a towel. In New York, the pattern returned.
Midway through the first set, his cheeks were flushed, his hair soaked. He led 3-0, then faded, the set slipping away in a tie-break. He had lobbied successfully to close the roof, his family – wife Jelena and their children – watching from the stands, but the comfort never came.
A body that would not cooperate
Djokovic’s night turned into a grim battle with his own physiology. He vomited by the courtside towel box late in the second set, then somehow found the timing and resolve to break for 6-5 and serve it out. One set all. The old instincts still flickered.
He was sick again in the third, even with the air conditioning humming under the closed roof. Yet he still picked his moment, grabbed the one break he needed, and moved to within a set of the second round. It looked ugly, but it looked enough.
Then the body said no.
At the start of the fourth set, Djokovic vomited yet again, then broke serve for 2-1. That should have been the cue for Navone to shrink. Instead, it was Djokovic who did.
After firing a shot wide later in the set, he landed awkwardly, dropped his racket and almost surrendered the rest of the set in spirit. Cramp seemed to seize him. His movement, once the most elastic and efficient in the sport, narrowed to a shuffle. The back tightened, the shoulder complained, and the points stretched away from him.
Navone sensed it and surged. The Argentine, who grew up idolising Djokovic, kept the ball deep, made him move, forced him to feel every step. From 6-2 in the fourth to 6-1 in the fifth, the match turned into a procession. Djokovic won just one more game. His total of 70 unforced errors underlined the chaos in his game and the pain in his body.
“It was obvious that it was an awful feeling on the court for me,” Djokovic admitted afterwards. “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 started to collapse, basically cramping and pain.
“The back just gave up in the end and shoulder, and I couldn’t close it out. I was a break up in the fourth, but just struggled all the way since the fourth game of the match.
“I don’t want to take too much out of his win. Congrats to him. He’s a nice guy, a fighter. But I didn’t enjoy myself.”
Navone’s night, Djokovic’s reckoning
For Navone, this was not just an upset; it was a sporting rite of passage. Playing his hero, under the lights on the biggest court in tennis, he held his nerve as Djokovic’s body failed.
“It was very tough for me because you are playing with the ‘GOAT’ on this court,” he said. “For sure it’s the best thing I’ve had on court. This is an amazing court and the biggest stage. It’s amazing, the way we play. I mean, five sets. I’m very happy. I don’t know. What can I say?”
He didn’t need to say much. The scoreboard and the scene around it did the talking.
For Djokovic, the consequences run deeper than a single loss. He will fall out of the world’s top 10 for the first time in eight years, a symbolic slide for a player who has defined the top of the sport for more than a decade. The defeat also sharpens the question already hanging over him: how many more of these gruelling best-of-five tests can his body take?
He hinted at the scale of the issue. “I didn’t enjoy myself,” he repeated. On this evidence, enjoyment is no longer the point. Endurance is.
The match ended minutes before midnight in New York, Djokovic walking off into the shadows of Arthur Ashe with his 25th major still stuck on the horizon. The numbers will say this was a first-round loss to the world No 49. The feeling, though, was of something larger: a champion suddenly fighting not just opponents, but time itself.
