Novak Djokovic suffered a first-round exit at the US Open for the first time in his career, losing a five-set battle to Argentina’s Mariano Navone at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday night.
Navone won 7-6 (5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in a match that lasted four hours and 36 minutes, the longest opening match of a Grand Slam in Djokovic’s career.
The 39-year-old, seeded fourth and a four-time US Open champion, looked unwell for much of the contest and appeared to vomit on court. He broke down in tears midway through the match as he struggled to keep pace with his younger opponent.
Djokovic built early leads in the first set before fading physically as the match wore on, a reversal of the fitness advantage that has long defined his game in the latter stages of matches. He finished with 70 unforced errors, 29 of them coming in the final two sets alone.
The defeat snapped a streak of 78 consecutive first-round wins at Grand Slam events, the longest such run in the Open era for either the men’s or women’s tour. It marked Djokovic’s earliest exit from a major tournament since the 2006 Australian Open and extended his wait for a 25th Grand Slam title into 2027.
Navone, ranked outside the top 100 as recently as 2023, called the win the biggest of his career. He will face a second consecutive appearance in the tournament’s second round.
Djokovic has now gone through 12 straight Grand Slam events without a title, matching the longest drought of his career, a stretch that ran from 2005 to 2007.
