Novak Djokovic’s US Open defeat was tough to watch – the question he now faces is even harder

In the end, the end comes for everyone. And at the end, the end can be brutal; not a heroic rage against the passing of time and dying of the light, but in tears, doubling over with a cramp, and vomiting in the punishing New York humidity. Novak Djokovic was not just left facing the question of how long he has left to fight after his first-round exit from the US Open on Sunday night, but how many more times he could stomach the difficult scenes that accompanied his five-set defeat to Mariano Navone. “I pretty much despised every moment that I spent on the court,” the 39-year-old said.

Djokovic has previously stated that he wants to keep playing until the LA Olympics in 2028, where he will compete under Serbia’s flag for one last time. The dream of a record 25th grand slam title and the thrill of competition is what keeps his fight alive. It was only in January that Djokovic produced one of the greatest performances of his career in defeating Jannik Sinner in five sets in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, a night that vindicated his belief and continued pursuit. It is an achievement that looks all the more remarkable now after Djokovic admitted to an underlying health issue that is causing serious discomfort on the court. “Can the issue be fixed?” Djokovic said. “I don’t know. I’m trying.”

If it can’t, and Djokovic’s body continues to “collapse” in conditions such as a stifling late August night in New York, then the road to Los Angeles could become a long one. Though he continues to dedicate himself entirely to his physical conditioning, Djokovic is already essentially a part-time tennis player, concentrating solely on the grand slams and using the occasional tour event as a warm-up towards the biggest tournaments. He still reached all four grand slam finals in 2025 and was the third-best player in the world behind Carlos Alcaraz and Sinner, and then reached a grand slam final at the start of 2026. But the drop-off since Wimbledon – although he has only played two matches – has been alarming.

Djokovic’s ranking will now fall outside of the world’s top-10 for the first time since 2018, making his path in future grand slams even harder. So much had to fall his way already: managing his conditioning and staying injury-free, avoiding both Alcaraz and Sinner in the draw, and the odd stroke of luck such as Lorenzo Musetti’s quarter-final retirement in Australia. At the US Open, with Sinner sidelined and Alcaraz only just returning from his wrist injury, Djokovic had what appeared on paper to be a golden opportunity, before the painful reality of attempting to become the oldest man to win a grand slam in history set in the final two sets of his defeat on Sunday night.

And yes, the words “painful reality” have been used to describe the challenges Djokovic encounters at grand slam many times since his last major title at the US Open in 2023. But there was pride and defiance on his way to successive semi-final defeats to Alcaraz and Sinner last season. Even at Wimbledon this year, his five-hour quarter-final victory over the third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime ranked as a vintage display. But the tears that welled up in Djokovic’s eyes as the Arthur Ashe Stadium stood to cheer his solitary game in the fifth set against Navone, as he shuffled around the court and looked every bit his age? They were painful, and all too real.

Djokovic knew it, too. He is not the first and will not be the last great champion to face the reckoning that comes when their powers begin to wane, and their body refuses to answer. Djokovic “despised” it and likely gained nothing from it apart from perhaps a few more doubts to go along with the body-blow of how suddenly the end can appear. Ahead of 2027, the year where he turns 40, he could yet find comfort in reframing his expectations. But even doing that would be admitting to defeat. If Djokovic’s physical issues are simply his age, it is a problem that has no remedy.

As tough as it was to watch Djokovic’s defeat to Navone, there is every chance he returns in January at the Australian Open following several months of rest, recovery and preparation and once again proves everyone wrong by going deep into the tournament. But Djokovic’s earliest grand slam exit since he was a teenager asks a question that will surely now follow him into the 23rd season of his career: how long he is prepared to accept being a diminished force, should he fall to another early defeat in Melbourne.