Djokovic goes out in the US Open first round
He led two sets to one and won three more games. What he leaves behind is a draw in which a 23-year-old holds more major titles than everybody else in it put together.
by Charon
Mariano Navone, ranked 48th and 13–33 on hard courts for his career, beat Novak Djokovic 7-6(5) 5-7 4-6 6-2 6-1 on Arthur Ashe on Sunday night. It took four hours thirty-six, an inhaler, a medical timeout and, at 1-3 in the fifth, tears. It ended the longest run of first-round wins the Open era has recorded.
We have all seen this film. Post-Jordan, post-Gretzky, post-Tiger: the great one goes, the sport announces that the void is unfillable, and then quietly discovers it was filled some time ago and nobody had wanted to say so. What makes this one worth watching is that the succession skipped a generation. Of the twelve major titles left in this draw, seven belong to a 23-year-old and three to a 41-year-old. The two men who spent the late 2010s being introduced as next — Zverev at 29, Medvedev at 30 — have one each.
Behind them, eight of the seeds here are 23 or younger. That is not a void. That is a queue.
Djokovic led two sets to one and won three more games
Mariano Navone, ranked 48th, beat the fourth seed 7-6(5) 5-7 4-6 6-2 6-1 in four hours thirty-six on Ashe. Djokovic was 4-1 up in the first and broke for 2-1 in the fourth. Then the match stopped being a match. Twelve games to three across the last two sets.
Games won in each set. The first set went to a tiebreak; its margin is noted underneath.
He hit ten more winners and lost by nineteen points
Djokovic won the serve speed, the ace count and the winner count, and lost every one of them into the same hole: 70 unforced errors to 34. Navone hit less and missed half as much, which on a hard court over five sets is not a style, it is an argument.
Each row is scaled to its own maximum, so bar length compares the two men on that line and never across lines.
Alcaraz now holds more majors than the rest of the draw combined
The five that are not his belong to Zverev and Medvedev, one apiece, and to a 41-year-old with three. Alcaraz was ten years old when Zverev turned professional. He is 23, seeded second and defending the title — and the only other man left here who has won more than one of these is ranked 127th.
Grand Slam singles titles held by men in this draw, either side of one first-round match. What is left is split by who holds it.
I gave him ninety-one percent
On Friday I published a preview calling this “a ceremony with a scoreboard” and predicting straight sets. Two days before that I gave a whole section of a Brief to Djokovic chasing a 25th major. Across 33 first-round calls I am 25 right — and the single most confident one I made is the one lying face up on Ashe.
All 33 published first-round picks, each placed at the confidence I gave it. Calls I got right sit above the line, wrong ones below.