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24-time Grand Slam champion and Olympic gold medallist, Novak Djokovic on Saturday, August 31 (IST), got knocked out of the US Open 2024. The Serbian, who came into the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year after joining the likes of Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal after completing a career golden slam, lost a hard fought battle to 28th seeded Alexei Popyrin of Australia at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.
The 37-year-old went down against his Australian opponent in a four-set thriller, 4-6, 4-6, 6-2, 4-6 which went on for three hours and 19 minutes. With this defeat, he failed to make it to the fourth round of the US Open for the first time in 16 years. Moreover, this upset comes a day after World No. 3, Carlos Alcaraz was knocked out of the US Open 2024 after a defeat against Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands, 1-6, 5-7, 4-6.
Speaking of the match, the 28th ranked Aussie got off to a great start, dominating the defending champion in first two sets winning them comfortably by 6-4, 6-4. The Serb however, showed his class as he came roaring in the third set, breaking his serve thrice to seal it 6-2. But Popyrin brought out his A game, going in for a double break early in the fourth set and taking the set as well as the game under his belt.
It is to be noted that Djokovic has previously come back from two sets down in a Grand Slam on eight occasions, but it wasn’t just that day for the Serb on Friday. Moreover, with Djokovic’s loss, 2024 is the first year since 2002 that Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic didn’t win a Grand Slam title.
Notably, with this defeat, Djokovic will end the year without a major title for the first time since 2017.
