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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Novak Djokovic vs Mariano Navone — 7-6(5) 5-7 4-6 6-2 6-1
 Mariano Navone✓ | 7 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
 Novak Djokovic | 65 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 |
Final · Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Djokovic led 4-1 in the first set and won three games in the last two. In between he was sick courtside more than once, took tablets and an inhaler from a doctor, had a medical timeout for his back before the fifth, and wept on his chair at 1-3 in it. He said afterwards that he had thought about stopping, and that winning the second and third sets talked him out of it — which is the cruel part, because he then broke for 2-1 in the fourth and had the lead when his body went. Navone deserves better than the role of witness. Ranked 49th, a clay-courter who barely played hard courts two years ago, he extended the rallies, chased everything, saved eight of the twelve break points he faced and won 63% of the points across the last two sets; he had never won a five-setter before. Djokovic, 39, said he "despised every moment" of it, and that the vomiting has followed him through almost every match this year. The defeat ends a run of 78 consecutive first-round wins at majors, the longest in the Open era, and leaves the first Grand Slam second round since 2003 with no Djokovic, Federer or Nadal in it. He would not say whether he will be back.
Novak DjokovicRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128, and the number the whole fortnight orbits makes its entrance: 25. Djokovic at 39 begins another attempt at the major total no one has reached, at the Slam he has won four times, in a draw whose top line lost Sinner and whose bottom line carries the defending champion he lost January's Melbourne final to. Every early round is a fitness deposit toward a possible Alcaraz semi-final — this section's fourth seed cannot meet the second seed before then. First he banks Sunday against the softest surface matchup the computer could have dealt him. Play runs Sunday through Tuesday.
What we know now
Court: Arthur Ashe Stadium
Match length: 4:36
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
What I said beforehand
The preview, frozen before the first serve. Clearly dated, never rewritten — that's the deal that makes the pick worth anything.
Djokovic. At 39 the four-time champion is playing a curated season — 21 matches all year, but 15 wins in them, including a run to the Australian Open final in January — and he opens against an opponent close to custom-built for his return game: Navone's 13–33 career hard-court record is the worst surface line of any man facing a top-five seed, and his heavy, high-margin clay game donates exactly the pace-less mid-court balls Djokovic has fed on for two decades. The real questions are the ones no first-round opponent answers: the legs across seven matches, the record 25th major at the end of them. For Sunday, the greatest returner in the sport's history against a claycourt No. 48 is not a matchup; it is a ceremony with a scoreboard. Straight sets.
The case for Novak Djokovic
91% to winFour titles here, 24 majors, a 754–139 career hard-court record, and an Australian Open final as recently as January: even the curated-schedule version of Djokovic operates a class above everyone in this section, let alone a hard-court 13–33. His return against a short second serve is the single most lopsided shot-versus-shot matchup the first round offers.
The case for Mariano Navone
9% to winNavone is 25, durable, and used to winning ugly — 21 wins this season came almost entirely from grinding rallies nobody else wanted. Djokovic at 39 has played six matches since Wimbledon's semi-finals; rust plus a hot afternoon plus a fearless baseline schlep is the only recipe anyone has offered for this upset, and Navone at least owns the recipe's ingredients.
Both cases written 2026-08-28, before the first ball — frozen into the record exactly as written, whatever the result. The percentages are mine — opinions with a percent sign on. They add to 100 because tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
My locked pick: Novak Djokovic to advance ✗ WRONG
“The sport's best returner against the draw's worst hard-court record — 24 majors of margin, even at 39.”
Locked 2026-08-28 03:40 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Novak DjokovicMariano NavonePlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-28.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Storylines
- Djokovic, 39, is chasing a record 25th Grand Slam title — and a fifth US Open, which would tie the Open Era men's record for this event.
- He reached the Australian Open final in January at age 38, losing to Alcaraz — proof the curated schedule still peaks at majors.
- Navone's 13–33 career hard-court record is the most lopsided surface line of any player drawn against a top-ten seed this year.
Head to head
Never met — Djokovic's curated calendar and Navone's clay-first one had no reason to cross until the draw made one. The Argentine's first look at the sport's best returner comes in the loudest building tennis owns.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Arthur Ashe Stadium, Sunday 30 August in the night session. The US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before; this one is on the board. (Official US Open order of play, as of 2026-08-28)
Weather: The rain has gone out of the forecast. Tonight is partly cloudy at 69°F on a 4% chance. Saturday is mostly sunny and 81°F at 1%, with a 32% chance of showers arriving after dark — the only real risk left in the window. Sunday is mostly sunny at 73°F on 10%, and Labor Day is sunny at 77°F on nothing at all. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-04)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.