Novak Djokovic waved goodbye, made a heart shape with his hands and blew kisses to the crowd as he walked off the court inside Arthur Ashe Stadium to a standing ovation.<\/p>\n
Among those applauding in return were Djokovic\u2019s 11-year-old son Stefan, while his 8-year-old daughter Tara covered her eyes and loaded her floppy-eared stuffed animal into a bag that went around her shoulder.<\/p>\n
Back down on the court, Djokovic had his two black bags \u2014 one containing his rackets and the other more equipment \u2014 hanging from his shoulders.<\/p>\n
After his first-round loss to Mariano Navone at the U.S. Open on Sunday night, it remains to be seen whether the 39-year-old Djokovic will ever bring those bags out on a court again for a professional match.<\/p>\n
The 7-6 (5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 loss marked Djokovic\u2019s earliest Grand Slam exit in two decades \u2014 dating back to the 2006 Australian Open \u2014 and the first time ever that he lost his opener at the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n
The holder of a men\u2019s record 24 Grand Slam singles titles, Djokovic has now gone three straight years without winning a major.<\/p>\n
Physical issues<\/p>\n
Perhaps even more concerning than his record \u2014 which has otherwise still been fairly competitive since his last Grand Slam title at the 2023 U.S. Open \u2014 is that Djokovic has consistently struggled with physical issues this year.<\/p>\n
After a run to the Australian Open final to start the year, Djokovic played little because of an injured right shoulder. Then he appeared weakened by a Paris heat wave in a five-set loss to Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca in the third round of the French Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was barely standing on my legs toward the end of the match,\u201d Djokovic said after getting beaten by Fonseca.<\/p>\n
Djokovic revived himself for a run to the semifinals at Wimbledon and then struggled again at the Cincinnati Open this month when he was beaten by 50th-ranked Thiago Agustin Tirante in his opening match.<\/p>\n
After the loss to Tirante, Djokovic said an unspecified health condition made it difficult for him to play in hot and humid weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a condition that I have, health-wise, that has been bothering me for the past couple of years,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cA lot of issues, especially when it is humid and it is hot. \u2026 Nerves and everything involved that make it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Djokovic\u2019s issues against Navone began midway through the first set when he appeared to be struggling with the heat and humidity. Djokovic led early on in the first set but Navone got back on serve before the match was briefly halted for the roof to be closed because of light rain.<\/p>\n
As Djokovic sat in his chair during the break, he kept moving an ice pack around his face, head and neck.<\/p>\n
Navone won the first in a tiebreaker and things eventually got much worse for Djokovic, who threw up at least once and later appeared to be cramping when he grabbed at his left foot. Djokovic swallowed pills brought to him by a doctor and had his lower back massaged during a medical timeout between the fourth and fifth sets, and he grimaced after several shots.<\/p>\n
Djokovic made 70 unforced errors in a painful performance that ended a few minutes before midnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019ve been carrying, unfortunately, pretty much every match this year: vomiting, throwing up, a serious issue there,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cThen my whole body starts to collapse, basically cramping and pain. Yeah, the back just gave up in the end and shoulder, and I couldn\u2019t close it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n
Where does Djokovic go from here? While he hasn\u2019t openly discussed an imminent retirement, one final hurrah at the Australian Open \u2014 the Grand Slam tournament he\u2019s won a record 10 times \u2014 in January would be a fitting setting for a final send-off.<\/p>\n
Or he could continue competing into his 40s.<\/p>\n
After all, Djokovic has reached two Grand Slam finals and six semifinals over the last three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel when I\u2019m healthy, I\u2019m still able to play as a top-five player, still able to compete at the highest level,\u201d Djokovic said after his semifinal loss to Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon this year.<\/p>\n
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal\u2019s physical issues<\/p>\n
Djokovic is the last man still competing among the Big Three players who dominated the game over the last two decades.<\/p>\n
Roger Federer (knee) and Rafael Nadal (hip) also struggled with physical issues before they retired in 2022 and 2024, respectively. Federer was 41 when he stopped and Nadal was 38.<\/p>\n
Djokovic\u2019s 24 major titles are two more than Nadal\u2019s 22 and four more than Federer\u2019s 20. Those numbers prompt some to consider Djokovic tennis\u2019 GOAT.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s OK. He has done incredible,\u201d Federer said last week. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing what he has been able to do and still now. I would have thought that maybe he was getting to a place where all of a sudden we would see a much bigger decline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now \u2014 perhaps \u2014 Djokovic is declining more severely.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno in New York contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full tennis coverage here <\/p>\n
Andrew Dampf, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic waved goodbye, made a heart shape with his hands and blew kisses to the crowd as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,77,82,593],"class_list":["post-878589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-international","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}