NEW YORK (AP) — Novak Djokovic tried to put on a happy face, if only for a moment, after his shocking third-round loss at the U.S. Open. He raised his arms, gave a thumbs-up and smiled slightly before heading to the locker room at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
That 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 loss to Alexei Popyrin, which ended shortly before midnight as Friday turned to Saturday, closed out Djokovic’s Grand Slam season, marking the first year since 2017 in which he did not win at least one major championship.
What does Novak Djokovic’s latest Grand Slam defeat mean?
For a man with 24 such titles, more than anyone else in tennis history, that may not be a big deal.
Then again, for someone who makes it clear that his ambition is to accumulate as many trophies as possible (and for someone who is 37, mind you), perhaps it is.
“It’s hard to put things in perspective right now. You’re just angry and upset that you lost and the way you played, and that’s it,” said Djokovic, who was the defending champion and has never exited the US Open before the third round and last exited that early in 2006.
“But tomorrow is a new day,” he continued, “and I’ll obviously think about what to do next.”
Does this mark the end of the Big Three period?
Looking at the bigger picture, there is this significant statistic: 2024 will go down in the books as the first season since 2002 without a Grand Slam title for any member of the so-called Big Three of men’s tennis: Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Federer, who is now retired, won his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2003, kicking off a remarkable run of glory for the trio. In total, they have won 66 Grand Slams.
No man had scored more than 14 points than Pete Sampras at the sport’s four biggest events until Federer finished with 20. Nadal then raised the bar to 22. And then Djokovic surpassed it.
“They took it to a completely different level,” Casper Ruud said when Federer retired in 2022, “and showed that anything is possible.”
But with Federer, 43, out of the game and Nadal, 38, on uncertain ground due to a recent string of injuries, including hip surgery just over a year ago, the real question now is how things stand for Djokovic.
He lost in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, retired before the quarter-finals of the French Open because he needed surgery on his right knee and was beaten by Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final. However, what mattered most to Djokovic this year was winning his first Olympic gold medal for Serbia, and that is what he did by beating Alcaraz in the Paris final.
Why are there so many surprises at the US Open?
Djokovic said there may be some truth to the notion that the physical and mental strain of the Summer Games contributed to his performance in New York, which he called “some of the worst tennis I’ve ever played,” pointing in part to 32 double faults in three matches, 14 against Popyrin.
“I felt powerless,” Djokovic said.
The unusual change of surfaces this season, from the clay of the French Open to the grass of Wimbledon, from the clay of the Summer Games to the hard courts of the US Open, does not make things any easier. Perhaps that is also affecting other players who were at the Olympics, in particular Alcaraz.
It is the first time since 2000 — and only the second time in the Open era, which dates back to 1968 — that two of the top three men’s seeds have crashed out during Week 1 in New York. Going into Saturday, only one previous men’s champion remained in the draw, 2021 winner Daniil Medvedev.
A night before Djokovic’s exit, 2022 champion Alcaraz’s 15-match Grand Slam winning streak ended when he was eliminated from the US Open in straight sets by 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp.
“Results like that happen,” Popyrin said. “I said to myself: Why isn’t this happening to me today?”
