The 2024 US Open could lose a lot of value if Novak Djokovic is eliminated early after Carlos Alcaraz . Fans need Djokovic to show his classic value at Grand Slam tournaments, but only partially.
Djokovic enters the third round against Alexei Popyrin, an Australian ranked 28th in the world. In head-to-head statistics, Popyrin has lost all three matches against Djokovic, most recently at Wimbledon this year.
Everything went normally from the beginning of set 1, Nole even had a chance to break in game 6. But despite leading 40-0 in that game, he still couldn't create a turning point despite having 5 break opportunities.
Popyrin's resilience was a sign and it paid off in game nine, when he broke Djokovic with a clean game and ended the first set 6-4.
Set 2 was also 6-4, also exactly 45 minutes and also Popyrin won. And if this was at the Masters tournament, the 28-year-old tennis player would have created a big shock with the first victory in his career against the Serbian tennis player.
But this is a Grand Slam and history shows that leading Djokovic by two sets is no guarantee of victory.
In the third set, Djokovic responded by winning 3 breaks and ending with a score of 6-2. In this set, Popyrin showed signs of pain in his ankle.
Djokovic needed to win the fourth set to tie the set, but like his previous two matches, his serving performance at the US Open this year was poor. Lots of double faults and even fewer unforced errors than his opponent, the 37-year-old lost in another metric.
This was a match where Djokovic went to the net a lot but either dropped ineffectively or left his flanks exposed and created opportunities for Popyrin to execute excellent running forehands.
From leading 2-1 in set 4, Djokovic lost 4 games in a row, in which the games holding the serve still lost points due to a series of double faults. Popyrin led 5-2 and held the serve in the game that could decide the match.
In a bit of a hurry, Popyrin served poorly again and let Djokovic break. The next game was quite difficult but Djokovic won again to shorten the score to 4-5.
Coming to “serving for the match” for the second time, Popyrin returned to his efficiency and ended up winning the game with a clean sweep, when Djokovic hit the ball wide.
Popyrin was the one who defeated the reigning US Open champion, and also helped Roger Federer maintain his record of winning the US Open for 5 consecutive years.
This is Djokovic 's earliest defeat at a Grand Slam tournament since the 2017 Australian Open, where he stopped in the second round.
For the first time since the 2024 French Open, the fourth round of a Grand Slam will not feature Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic.
