Djokovic crashes out of US Open first round to Navone in five-set marathon
Novak Djokovic's bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title ended at the first hurdle on 31 August 2026, as Argentina's Mariano Navone beat him 7-6(5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the opening round of the US Open (The Guardian).
The match, played under the closed roof of Arthur Ashe Stadium after rain forced organisers to shut it at 4-3 in the first set, lasted four hours and 36 minutes. Djokovic, a 39-year-old with 24 Grand Slam titles to his name, had come to Flushing Meadows chasing the one milestone that has eluded every player: a 25th major singles crown (US Open official site). Instead, he suffered his earliest exit at a Grand Slam in two decades.
This was only the third first-round loss of Djokovic's career at a major and his first since the 2006 Australian Open — a span that covers 84 Grand Slam appearances. The scale of the upset is hard to overstate. Navone, a clay-court specialist who had nearly slipped out of the top 100 a year earlier, re-established himself inside the top 50 and delivered the win of his life on hard court.
The scoreline tells one story. The physical battle tells another. Djokovic vomited repeatedly during the match, struggled visibly with the humidity, fought off cramps, and at times appeared in a daze on court. After the match, he attributed the symptoms to a health condition that heat and humidity make worse — bringing vomiting, cramping, and pain in his back and shoulder.
It was not the first warning sign. A couple of weeks earlier, Djokovic lost to Thiago Agustín Tirante in three sets at the Cincinnati Open in similar evening conditions. Two early exits in sticky American air, the same pattern of physical distress.
Navone, by contrast, grew into the match. After dropping the third set to trail two sets to one, he flipped the contest completely, taking the fourth 6-2 and the fifth 6-1 — the scoreline of a man finishing far stronger than his opponent. Djokovic, a four-time US Open champion who knows this court as well as anyone, had nothing left to give.
The draw had placed Djokovic in the same half as defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, a potential quarter-final matchup that now evaporates. For Alcaraz, the path through his half of the draw just lost its biggest obstacle.
For fans, what lingers is the image of one of the sport's greatest players doubled over on the court that has crowned him four times. A fifth-set tiebreak — that final, no-clock, nowhere-to-hide test — was not needed here. The match ended not with a held nerve but with a body that could no longer answer. Navone walks on. Djokovic, at 39, faces questions that statistics alone cannot settle.
