Legends are rarely remembered for their falls, even if they are loud. Many years of success allow for some leeway. Few retire at their peak, celebrating in full glory; most do so with sad defeats, it's the logic of time. But it's still hard to see Novak Djokovic like this, unable to do anything, completely broken, in the center of the Arthur Ashe central court, where he was a four-time champion. This Sunday, in the first round of the US Open, he fell to the Argentine Mariano Navone in five sets, 7-6(5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, and 6-1, confirming a decline that now seems irreversible.
It's not so much his 39 years but the ailments of a body that has already experienced it all. This season, he managed to reach the final of the Australian Open and the semifinals of Wimbledon, but in recent weeks, he has shown worrying signs of exhaustion. This Sunday, as it happened recently at the Cincinnati Masters 1000, he vomited on the court, experienced chills, had trouble moving, and ultimately could barely play tennis.
There is little analysis to be made of this defeat, despite the over four and a half hours of the match. The freshness only lasted for three games, and everything else was a battle of the 24-time Grand Slam champion against his own body. In the second and third sets, he regrouped to dominate Navone in his own way, accelerating in crucial moments and imposing his mentality, but at the start of the fourth set, his energy ran out, and that was it.
From that moment on, it was all suffering: he suffered, his family suffered, his team suffered, the audience suffered, anyone who saw a man there shattered and in tears suffered. Djokovic couldn't hold back tears in the fifth set when he couldn't sustain any exchanges, nor afterwards when he left for the locker room.
It remains to be seen what his decision will be now: if he will try to recover to return in 2027, although judging by what was seen, it seems unlikely that he will be able to lift a 'major' again. In any case, he has leeway. Legends are rarely remembered for their falls, even if they are loud.