In a total stunner, the last two champions of the U.S. Open tournament in men’s singles have both been eliminated prior to the event’s fourth round.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz, who won in 2022, fell 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 to Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp, the world No. 74, on Thursday. Alcaraz, 21, had won the year’s previous two majors (the French Open and Wimbledon).
On Friday, 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, who won the event in 2023, was eliminated in the third round by Australian Alexei Popyrin, the No. 28-ranked player in the world, in four sets, 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Along with Alcaraz, Djokovic was viewed as another tournament favorite.
Djokovic, winner of the most Grand Slams in men’s tennis history, will now finish the year major-less for the first time since 2017.
Per Matthew Futterman of The Athletic, the Serbian superstar was deeply upset with his performance in New York.
Novak Djokovic of Team Serbia meets Carlos Alcaraz of Team Spain at the net following victory in the Men’s Singles Gold medal match on day nine of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Roland Garroson August 04, 2024 in Paris, France. Both are now out of the U.S. Open.
Jean Catuffe/Getty Images
“I have played some of the worst tennis I have ever played, honestly, serving by far the worst ever,” an aggrieved Djokovic said. “It was just really a big struggle mentally for me to play these three matches here, because I wasn’t playing even close to my best.”
“Alcaraz is out, I’m out, you know, some big upsets,” he said. “The draw is opening up. Obviously [world No. 1 Janik] Sinner is the main favorite, but then, you know, [world No. 20 Frances] Tiafoe is there as well as American favorite [world No. 12 Taylor] Fritz. [World No. 4 Alexander] Zverev, you have great guys playing well, and [world No. 6 Andrey] Rublev, [world No. 9 Grigor] Dimitrov in this part of the draw… Anybody can take it.”
As for Alcaraz, the Spaniard also was looking inward after his match, as Howard Fendrich of The Associated Press details.
“It was a fight against myself, in my mind, during the match. In tennis, you are playing against someone that wants the same as you — to win the match — and you have to be as … calm as you can, just to think better in the match and try to do good things,” Alcaraz said. “Today I was playing against the opponent, and I was playing against myself, in my mind. A lot of emotions that I couldn’t control.”
Alcaraz and Djokovic faced off in the finals of both Wimbledon and this year’s 2024 Paris Olympics. While Alcaraz cleaned Djokovic’s clock in Wimbledon, Djokovic broke through to claim his first-ever Olympic gold medal the next month.
Sinner, who won this year’s Australian Open — and in so doing knocked Djokovic out of the No. 1 world ranking — now ostensibly becomes the favorite to nab his first U.S. Open title this year. He has dealt with a lot this year already, having had to withdraw from the Olympics due to an ill-timed case of tonsillitis before it was discovered that he had tested positive for having trace amounts of a banned anabolic steroid.
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