Djokovic stunned by No. 28 seed Alexei Popyrin in 3rd round of U.S. Open

Novak Djokovic didn’t go straightforward on himself when assessing the listless method he carried out from the beginning of the U.S. Open, pointing to his sloppy serving as the primary purpose the defence of his 2023 title surprisingly ended in the third round.

“I have played some of the worst tennis I have ever played, honestly,” Djokovic stated, simply after midnight as Friday turned to Saturday. “Serving — by far — the worst ever.”

With 14 double-faults, elevating his event complete to 32, Djokovic bowed out with a 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 loss to Twenty eighth-seeded Alexei Popyrin of Australia, one other surprising end result at Flushing Meadows one evening after Carlos Alcaraz exited.

“It was just an awful match for me,” the No. 2-seeded Djokovic stated. “I wasn’t playing even close to my best. It’s not good to be in that kind of state where you feel OK physically, and of course you’re motivated because it’s a Grand Slam, but you just are not able to find your game. That’s it. The game is falling apart, and I guess you have to accept that tournaments like this happen.”

Not usually for him, although.

In spite of everything, Djokovic was making an attempt to grow to be the primary participant in tennis historical past with 25 Grand Slam singles titles. As an alternative, after knee surgical procedure in June, he finishes a 12 months with out claiming at the least one main championship for the primary time since 2017. Earlier than that, it hadn’t occurred since 2010.

Additionally of be aware: 2024 now turns into the primary season since 2002 in which none of the Massive Three of males’s tennis — Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer — earned a Slam trophy.

Worst U.S. Open exhibiting

The third-round exit equals Djokovic’s worst exhibiting at Flushing Meadows; the one different events he was overwhelmed that early on the U.S. Open got here in 2005 and 2006. The person who defeated Djokovic 18 years in the past, Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame member Lleyton Hewitt, is now Australia’s Davis Cup captain and was sitting in Popyrin’s visitor field in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Djokovic, who’s 37, has reached the ultimate in Ashe 10 instances, leaving with the title in 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2023.

On Friday, although, he was sluggish and emotionally flat, maybe residual fatigue after accumulating his first Olympic gold medal for Serbia by beating Alcaraz in the ultimate on the Paris Video games earlier in August.

“Obviously, it had an effect,” Djokovic stated. “I spent a lot of energy winning the gold, and I did arrive to New York just not feeling fresh mentally and physically. But because it’s the U.S. Open, I gave it a shot and I tried my best. I mean, I didn’t have any physical issues. I just felt out of gas. And you could see that with the way I played.”

WATCH l Djokovic completes profession Golden Slam with Olympic title:

Novak Djokovic overcome with emotion after lastly finishing the profession Golden Slam

24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic of Serbia wept after defeating Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz 7-6(3), 7-6(2), to win Olympic gold and grow to be solely the fifth particular person to finish the profession Grand Slam.

The No. 3-seeded Alcaraz entered the U.S. Open because the event favourite having received the French Open and Wimbledon, and acknowledged his power was decrease than he realized after getting eradicated by 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 on Thursday evening.

Djokovic then changed Alcaraz because the money-line decide to take the lads’s title, in line with BetMGM Sportsbook, however that standing did not final lengthy in any respect.

For the 25-year-old Popyrin had been 0-3 in opposition to Djokovic and 0-6 in third-round matches at majors.

However the strong-serving Popyrin is enjoying in addition to ever, coming off the largest title of his profession lower than three weeks in the past at a hard-court event in Montreal, the place he picked up 5 wins in opposition to opponents ranked in the highest 20.

Popyrin was terrific on the internet, going 10 for 10 on serve-and-volley approaches and 25 for 36 total on factors when he pushed ahead. Djokovic, in distinction, solely received the purpose on 19 of his 40 journeys to the web, in half as a result of Popyrin stored flipping passing photographs by him.

Popyrin took large cuts along with his highly effective forehand, accumulating 22 of his 50 complete winners with that shot.

And he broke Djokovic 5 instances, together with for a lead of 3-2 in the fourth. That recreation felt titanic, lasting greater than 10 minutes and together with 4 break probabilities for Popyrin, who transformed the final with an inside-out forehand to shut a 22-stroke change, then rocked again on his heels, clenched each fists and set free a roar. He took Djokovic’s subsequent service recreation, too, to make it 5-2.

The primary time Popyrin served for the match, he faltered, permitting Djokovic to interrupt. The second time, Popyrin completed the deal, holding at love when Djokovic despatched a forehand lengthy.

Now Popyrin will attempt to attain his first Grand Slam quarterfinal by getting previous No. 20 Frances Tiafoe, who superior Friday with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 win over No. 13 Ben Shelton in a matchup between two Individuals.

Gauff reaches Round of 16

Coco Gauff was not conscious that she’d misplaced 5 consecutive matches in opposition to opponents ranked in the highest 50. She was unsure precisely what number of factors in a row she’d dropped — 11, it seems — to provide away the primary set in opposition to Elina Svitolina in the U.S. Open’s third round on Friday.

Right here, then, is what was totally clear to Gauff at that second: “I needed a reset.” So earlier than the second set, the 20-year-old from Florida went to the toilet, modified half of her outfit and splashed water on her face. Then Gauff went again on courtroom and prolonged the defence of her first Grand Slam title by turning issues round to beat the Twenty seventh-seeded Svitolina 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

“Felt like a new person coming out,” the third-seeded Gauff stated. “I just didn’t want to leave the court with any regrets.”

After making mistake after mistake early on at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Gauff managed to reel off 9 of 11 video games in one stretch and received once more regardless of dropping the opening set, one thing she did thrice en path to claiming the 2023 trophy at Flushing Meadows, together with in the ultimate in opposition to Aryna Sabalenka.

“It was in my mind today. It gave me a lot of confidence,” Gauff stated, “just because it felt like deja vu a little bit.”

On Sunday, Gauff will face No. 13 Emma Navarro, one of her teammates on the Paris Olympics, for a berth in the quarterfinals. Navarro eradicated Gauff in the fourth round at Wimbledon.

“I did a good job of neutralizing her serve and just playing really aggressive from the baseline and pushing back against her groundstrokes,” Navarro, who’s from South Carolina and received an NCAA title for Virginia, stated about that matchup final month. “And then always getting one more ball back in the court.”

4th-round matchups set

Navarro superior Friday with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory over No. 19 Marta Kostyuk. Different ladies’s fourth-round matchups arrange in the afternoon had been No. 7 Zheng Qinwen vs. No. 24 Donna Vekic, and No. 26 Paula Badosa vs. Wang Yafan. No. 2 Sabalenka beat No. 29 Ekaterina Alexandrova 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the latest-starting ladies’s match in U.S. Open historical past and can face No. 33 Elise Mertens, who outlasted No. 14 Madison Keys in three units.

The primary males’s fourth-round pairing that was arrange was No. 6 Andrey Rublev in opposition to No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov. No. 8 Casper Ruud will meet No. 12-seeded Taylor Fritz, and No. 4 Alexander Zverev superior to tackle American Brandon Nakashima after ending his four-set victory over Tomas Martin Etcheverry at 2:35 a.m.

WATCH | Canada’s Gabriel Diallo by way of to 3rd round:

Canadian qualifier Diallo advances to 3rd round of U.S. Open with one other upset win

After incomes his first ever Grand Slam win on Tuesday, Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo defeats twenty fourth seed Arthur Fils of France 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of the U.S. Open.

Zheng-Vekic is a rematch of the gold medal match on the Summer time Video games 4 weeks in the past; Zheng received that one.

Vekic beat Gauff in the third round on the Olympics, half of Gauff’s drought in opposition to top-50 foes. That additionally was half of a latest droop that noticed Gauff win simply 5 of her earlier 9 matches.

Such a distinction to a 12 months in the past, when Gauff received 18 of 19, and 12 in a row, alongside the way in which to 2 tuneup titles on exhausting courts after which the championship on the U.S. Open that made her the primary U.S. teenager to triumph at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams in 1999.

By the conclusion of one set in opposition to Svitolina, it appeared as if one other loss could be in the offing. Gauff’s totals had been 16 unforced errors — 9 on backhands — and simply seven winners. She put solely 45 per cent of her first serves in. She went 0 for 3 on break factors. She allowed Svitolina to say 19 of the 28 factors that lasted greater than 4 strokes.

Bueckers, Fudd in crowd

All of these numbers bought higher throughout the final two units as Gauff tried to be extra aggressive together with her forehands and be extra cautious together with her backhands. And one thing else modified, on the behest of her coaches: Gauff bought the partisan crowd extra concerned.

Svitolina stated afterward she was bothered by an ankle harm picked up final week

“I feel like she started to go [for] more a little bit. But to be fair, I didn’t play the way that I wanted to play. … Then she started to be more alive,” stated Svitolina, a three-time Slam semifinalist. “And, of course, the crowd was behind her.”

All the pieces started to vary for Gauff on Friday after 1 hour, 10 minutes, when she broke to steer 4-2 in the second set, smacking a cross-court forehand winner. She celebrated with a yell of “Come on!” and raised her left hand to wiggle her fingers and ask the spectators to get louder.

Quickly that set belonged to Gauff, who closed it with a 94 mph ace, shook a fist and shouted.

Within the third, with UConn ladies’s basketball stars Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd sitting in her visitor field at Ashe, Gauff broke instantly, then held to go up 2-0 with the assistance of one 38-stroke level that she took when Svitolina despatched a backhand vast.

Quickly it was 5-1 for Gauff, whose solely late wobble got here when she served for the match at 5-2. She wasted three match factors and bought damaged there. However Gauff broke proper again to shut issues out.

“I’m glad that I had that match,” Gauff stated, “because I think it just makes me match-tough and gets me ready, probably, for future challenges.”