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NEW YORK — It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.
Just 26 days after winning Olympic gold in Paris, Novak Djokovic ended his second-least profitable Grand Slam season since 2009 with a shock third-round loss to Alexei Popyrin at the US Open. With months left in the 2024 tennis calendar, he could end the year without a tour-level title for the first time since 2005, while also securing what he describes as “the greatest achievement of his career”.
When has Djokovic ever had to choose between the two? The 24-time major winner is generally content only to win everything. He has dominated tennis since the beginning of 2011, but settling for less is generally anathema to him.
As is often the case in this sport, the father of time is undefeated. At 37, perhaps the moment that was always coming has finally arrived. It is not a sharp decline, nor is his importance in Grand Slam tournaments ending. He is just a player who can still reach his peak occasionally, but not always, not all season long.
Players who have beaten him include Alejandro Tavilo, Thomas Machak, Luca Nardi and now Popyrin. His major losses to his biggest rival Yannick Sinner in Australia and Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon have all been frustratingly one-sided. The fact that Djokovic reached the Wimbledon final just six weeks after undergoing medial meniscus surgery on his right knee proves that he can still be a force at a Grand Slam. The fact that Alcaraz defeated him so easily in the final proves that even after so long, a loss can turn ugly very quickly.
Novak Djokovic left New York without a Grand Slam title this year. (Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)
That happened against Popyrin in front of 24,000 spectators at Arthur Ashe. Djokovic has been recovering for months, slowly increasing his physical activity, and his game has inevitably suffered during that time. His ball-striking and tactical sense are still intact, and he has added turbo boosts when needed, most notably in the Olympic second-set tiebreak when he hit two forehands to beat Alcaraz.
His thoughts after his defeat by Popyrin were inexplicable.
“To be honest, I’ve had some of the worst tennis I’ve ever played. I’ve had the worst serves,” Djokovic told reporters during a brief post-match press conference that began on Friday night and lasted until Saturday morning.
Since returning from surgery, his serve has been awkward, especially on the follow-through. He has looked unsteady on his landings, often stumbling to the court. But the ball still finds its way into the box. Not so in this tournament. He has made 52% of his first serves, a career average in the mid-60s. He has 32 double faults in 38 service games over three rounds.
He also admitted that it was tough coming here right after the Olympics and that he was not in the best condition to compete. “I had put a lot of energy into winning the gold medal and I arrived in New York mentally and physically refreshed,” he said.
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Novak Djokovic knew he would win Olympic gold, but he didn’t know when.
“But because it was the US Open, I took on the challenge and did my best.”
All of this is completely understandable. It’s just Djokovic. The most amazing thing about him, aside from the 2016-2018 slump after winning the career Grand Slam, is his ability to always get back up and running. He’s achieved monumental feats on his list.
Popyrin was different. He looked lifeless, struggled to get up as usual, and barely made a sound while hitting the ball, even in moments of great effort and stress. The crowd’s play was cold. The intense matches were consistently against him. The familiar first-set rope-a-dope that led to a dominant four-set victory never came.
In the third and early fourth sets, when Popyrin was breaking down on his serve, missing, and beating himself up, it seemed as if the inevitable was coming. But it wasn’t the inevitable of the past 20 years. It was the inevitable of the past eight months.
Alexei Popyrin overcame a mid-match slump to take control in the fourth set. (Sarah Steer/Getty Images)
As the Grand Slam season winds down, the enormous feat of winning an Olympic gold medal seems increasingly like a glittering distraction from the analysis. Nothing can diminish the scale of what it was like to achieve that feat at age 37, especially when Djokovic collapsed on the clay floor and trembled in tears. But it was still a pretty disappointing year for him. Not only Djokovic’s knee, but also mitigating circumstances like being hit in the head with a metal water bottle in Rome made it harder for him to reach his usual heights.
He will be back at the Australian Open, desperate to take the title he has won 10 times from Jannik Sinner, but what happened on Friday was not a one-off. It was not the earth-shattering result that turned the tennis world upside down, like his loss to Sam Querrey at Wimbledon in 2016. This year’s loss to Popyrin, who has been close to him at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon, was in line with his many defeats this year.
Winning in Paris was an exception, and a Grand Slam final, semifinal, and quarterfinal would be the year most players retire at some age, but Djokovic doesn’t think so. Until 2024, he has won a major title every year since 2010, but not in 2017.
“From a bigger perspective, of course I have to be content,” Djokovic said when asked to take a long-term view. Whether Djokovic has the ability to reset his goals for next year or later, and whether he is happy to do so, will be one of the defining stories in tennis in 2025.
(Above photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
