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By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, August 31, 2024
Picture credit score: Corleve/Mark Peterson
NEW YORK—Pausing to acknowledge cheering followers, Novak Djokovic spun and waved to the Arthur Ashe crowd.
A grasp of so many closing Sundays, the Grand Slam king walked out of this US Open in a shocking Friday night time loss to Alexei Popyrin.
More: Depleted Djokovic on What Went Wrong
The tip of the road for Djokovic marked the tip of an period for Grand Slam tennis.
Djokovic’s defeat signifies that for the primary season since 2002 not one of the iconic Large 3 champions—Djokovic, Rafael Nadal nor Roger Federer—raised a Grand Slam title trophy.
Corridor of Famer Pete Sampras, Djokovic’s tennis hero, defeated archrival Andre Agassi within the 2002 US Open closing in his farewell event.
The next yr, Federer defeated Mark Philippoussis in his maiden main closing at Wimbledon to seize the primary of his 20 Grand Slam titles.
Since Federer’s 2003 Wimbledon win a Large 3 champion had gained at the very least one main championship—Djokovic gained three of the 4 Grand Slam crowns in 2023—each single yr till now.
4-time US Open champion, who underwent knee surgical procedure in June, expended bodily and emotional vitality capturing the Olympic gold medal for Serbia on the Paris Olympics eight weeks after surgical procedure.
A depleted Djokovic, who didn’t play a hard-court tune-up event in preparation for his US Open title protection, stated he ran out of fuel.
“I spent loads of vitality successful the gold, and I did arrive to New York simply not feeling recent mentally and bodily,” Djokovic stated. “However as a result of it is US Open, you realize, I gave it a shot and I attempted my finest. I imply, I did not have any bodily points. I simply felt out of fuel, you realize, and you can see that with the best way I performed.
“Simply from the very starting, from the primary match, I simply did not discover myself in any respect on this court docket. It is all I can say, you realize. You already know, life strikes on. I imply, yeah, simply try to recalibrate and search for what’s subsequent.“
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