Novak Djokovic held early leads of 3-0 and 4-1 in the first set, threw up at least once during the match, and still walked off the court in New York after mere minutes before midnight having lost his opening match at the US Open for the first time in his career. The 39-year-old, seeded No. 4 from Serbia, fell to 25-year-old Mariano Navone of Argentina 7-6 (5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in a match that lasted four hours and 36 minutes.
The defeat, first reported by the Chicago Tribune, marked Djokovic's earliest Grand Slam exit in two decades and ended a run in which he had never previously lost in the first round of the US Open across 21 years since his main-draw debut there. The Tribune's Stephen Whyno detailed how Djokovic made 70 unforced errors and appeared to be cramping in his left foot late in the match, while also receiving medical treatment that included pills and a lower-back massage. It was Djokovic's 43rd attempt at a five-set victory that ultimately fell short.
Djokovic, who holds 24 major titles, had lost in a Grand Slam first round only once before in his career — at the 2006 Australian Open — a streak of 78 consecutive first-round wins that stretched back two decades, according to SuperSport. He remains tied with Margaret Court for the all-time record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles, a mark he has been chasing since his last major title at the 2023 US Open, per Reuters reporting relayed by KFGO.
A Streak Snapped, a Ranking Falls
The loss carries consequences well beyond Flushing Meadows. Djokovic will fall out of the ATP top 10 for the first time since July 2018, having shed 790 ranking points tied to his 2025 semifinal finish at the tournament, per Olympics.com. He had reached 10 US Open finals in his career and carried a 95-15 record at the tournament entering this match, with titles in 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2023, according to USOpen.org.
The result also closes out a broader milestone for men's tennis. This is the first Grand Slam in 23 years — since 2003 — in which none of the so-called Big Three of Djokovic, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal advanced to the second round, according to Sky Sports.
Sickness on Full Display
Djokovic experienced physical and internal ailments throughout the match, and in blunt post-match remarks he said he despised every moment spent on court, revealing that chronic stomach discomfort and vomiting had affected him during nearly every tournament he played in 2026, as reported by the Independent. He took multiple medical timeouts for treatment on his lower back as well as cramping.
The turning point came after Djokovic broke serve to grab a 2-1 lead in the fourth set — a moment that briefly suggested a comeback was building. Instead, Navone won 11 of the final 12 games to close out the win, a collapse detailed by Tennis365.
It wasn't an isolated incident. Two weeks earlier, Djokovic suffered a similar heat and stomach-related collapse at the Cincinnati Open, losing 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Argentina's Thiago Agustín Tirante in the second round, a match the Guardian reported saw him spend significant time between points squatting and struggling to breathe in the heat — a defeat Hoodline covered in Djokovic's Cincinnati collapse. Outside the majors, he compiled just a 2-3 record in non-major tournaments in 2026, failing to reach the quarterfinals at Indian Wells, Rome or Cincinnati, according to the Guardian, even as he maintained that Grand Slams and the Olympics remained his primary focus.
Navone's Breakthrough Moment
For Navone, the win was his first career five-set victory and arguably the biggest result of a season already on the rise. He captured his maiden ATP Tour singles title earlier in 2026 at the Țiriac Open in Bucharest, Romania, defeating Spanish qualifier Daniel Mérida in the final on April 5 after saving match points in the semifinals, according to the tournament's own account.
Whether Djokovic will seek extended medical evaluation for the internal ailments that have dogged him all season, or whether this defeat marks the approaching end of his Grand Slam career, remains unclear. He had returned to the US Open just weeks after Hoodline reported on his comeback to the summer hard-court circuit in his Cincinnati Open return, and he had also entered this year's US Open mixed doubles draw, a detail Hoodline noted in its coverage of Serena Williams's own return to the tournament alongside world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.
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