Novak Djokovic Pukes And Crumbles At The U.S. Open

For the first time in over 20 years, Novak Djokovic lost his first-round match at a Slam. On Sunday he fell in five sets to world No. 49 Mariano Navone, a 25-year-old clay-court specialist appearing in just his third-ever U.S. Open main draw. In other words, the sort of opponent Djokovic has made a career of dispatching, even if it did sometimes take him a leisurely five sets to do it.

In this late period of his career, Djokovic has professed his love of the best-of-five format, which affords him time to recalibrate. His comeback after a hot start from a plucky youth has played out so many times that there’s an air of inevitability in the stadium as he goes about his business, overcoming his aches and steadying the scoreboard. But this was not the Djokovic of matches past, and there was no air of inevitability Sunday night—just a gruesome scene. The 39-year-old labored, vomited, and cried en route to losing 7-6(5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Not since the 2006 Australian Open—a tournament he’d go on to win 10 times—has Djokovic exited a Slam in the first round. He’d also never lost in the U.S Open’s first round before. But this loss was not without recent precedent. Djokovic had struggled with the heat at the Cincinnati Open in mid-August, losing his first match there to Thiago Agustin Tirante: coincidentally, another 25-year-old Argentine then ranked around No. 50. During that match, Djokovic appeared to vomit and took a medical timeout. After that loss, he referenced an unspecified health condition “that has been bothering me for the past couple of years,” making it hard for him to play in hot and humid weather. To the best of my knowledge, that was his first-ever public reference to such a condition.