Is Novak Djokovic’s first tennis season with no Grand Slam title in seven years an indication?

NEW YORK — It was one of the best of instances, it was the worst of instances.

Twenty-six days after Novak Djokovic received Olympic gold in Paris, he completed off his second-least worthwhile Grand Slam season since 2009 with a surprising third-round defeat to Alexei Popyrin on the U.S. Open. With a couple of months remaining on the 2024 tennis calendar, he may finish the yr with no Tour-level title for the primary time since 2005, whereas concurrently securing what he describes because the “best achievement of his profession”.

When has it ever been a case of both/or for Djokovic? The 24-time main winner is usually solely glad when he’s successful every part. Settling for something much less has typically been anathema to the person who has dominated tennis, with a blip or two, because the begin of 2011.

Because it so typically goes on this sport, father time is undefeated. At 37 , maybe the second that was all the time coming has lastly arrived. Not in a steep decline, nor an finish to his relevance at Grand Slam tournaments. Simply his changing into a participant that may nonetheless hit the heights once in a while, however not on a regular basis and never all season lengthy.

Gamers who’ve crushed him embrace Alejandro Tabilo, Tomas Machac, Luca Nardi, and now Popyrin. His defeats on the majors to his two largest rivals, Jannik Sinner in Australia and Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon, had been each desperately one-sided. That Djokovic reached that Wimbledon last simply six weeks after surgical procedure on the medial meniscus of his proper knee is testomony to the truth that he can nonetheless be a pressure at Grand Slams. That Alcaraz lower him down so simply in that last is testomony to the sensation that his defeats now, after so lengthy, have the capability to grow to be ugly in a short time.

It occurred towards Popyrin, in entrance of 24,000 on Arthur Ashe. Djokovic has been in restoration for months, slowly upping his bodily exertion, and in that point, his recreation has essentially suffered. His ball-striking and tactical nous are nonetheless there, and he has even added a turbo increase when he wants it, most memorably ripping two forehands previous Alcaraz within the second-set tiebreak on the Olympics.

His ideas after his defeat to Popyrin didn’t account for any of that.

“I’ve performed a few of the worst tennis I’ve ever performed, truthfully, serving by far the worst ever,” Djokovic informed reporters in a brief post-match press convention as Friday night time ticked into Saturday morning.

Ever since he returned from surgical procedure, his service movement has been ungainly, particulary on the follow-through. He has seemed unsteady as he lands, typically stumbling into the courtroom. However the ball has nonetheless gone within the field. Not so throughout this match, the place he made 52 p.c of his first serves, towards a profession common within the mid-60s. He hit 32 double faults in 38 service video games throughout three rounds.

He additionally acknowledged that it had been troublesome coming right here so quickly after the excessive of the Olympics, and that he wasn’t actually in the best state to compete. “I spent a number of vitality successful the gold, and I did arrive to New York simply not feeling recent mentally and bodily,” he stated.

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“However as a result of it’s the U.S. Open, I gave it a shot and I attempted my finest.”

All of that is completely comprehensible — it’s simply, that is Djokovic. Apart from the 2016 to 2018 comedown after he accomplished the profession Grand Slam, what’s been so outstanding about him is his means to all the time go once more, whilst he’s ticked monumental achievement after monumental achievement off his listing.

That wasn’t the case towards Popyrin. He seemed lifeless, struggling to evoke himself in the best way he usually does, and he was strikingly quiet — barely making a sound as he struck the ball — even in moments of excessive exertion and stress. The group play was half-hearted. The tight video games invariably went towards him, quite than for him. The acquainted first-set rope-a-dope that turns right into a dominant four-set win by no means got here.

Within the third set and the early a part of the fourth, when Popyrin was collapsing into serves, lacking and lambasting himself, it seemed as if the inevitable was coming. Nevertheless it wasn’t the inevitable of the final 20 years that arrived. It was the inevitable of the final eight months.

Alexei Popyrin overcame a wobble halfway by the match to grab management within the fourth set. (Sarah Stier / Getty Photos)

As his Grand Slam season ends, the outstanding achievement of successful Olympic gold more and more seems like a shiny distraction, in analytical phrases. Nothing can diminish the size of doing that at 37, not least Djokovic’s response as he collapsed to the clay and shook with tears, but it surely has nonetheless been a reasonably disappointing yr for him. There are mitigating circumstances — not simply Djokovic’s knee, however being struck on the top by a metallic water bottle in Rome — which have made attaining his typical heights much more difficult.

He shall be again for the Australian Open, determined to wrestle the title he has received 10 instances again from Jannik Sinner, however what occurred on Friday wasn’t a blip. It was not an earth-shattering end result, like when he misplaced to Sam Querrey at Wimbledon in 2016, which turned the tennis world the wrong way up. Shedding to Popyrin, who ran him shut at this yr’s Australian Open and at Wimbledon too, was consistent with lots of his defeats this yr.

Profitable in Paris was the outlier, and whereas a Grand Slam last; semifinal; and quarterfinal is a yr that the huge, overwhelming majority of gamers would retire on at any age, that isn’t how Djokovic thinks. Till 2024, he had received a serious title yearly since 2010, however for 2017.

“Sitting from a bigger perspective, in fact I’ve to be content material,” Djokovic stated when requested to take a longer-term view himself. Seeing whether or not Djokovic has the power to reset his objectives within the subsequent yr or so, and whether or not he’s pleased to take action, shall be one of many defining tales in tennis in 2025.

(Prime picture: Charly Triballeau / AFP by way of Getty Photos)