Djokovic Loses in US Open First Round for First Time, Ending 78-Slam Streak

NEW YORK, Novak Djokovic has been doing a lot of things for the first time lately, and none of them are good.

The 39-year-old dropped out of the 2026 US Open on Aug. 30, beaten by Argentina's Mariano Navone 7-6 (5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in a match that ran four hours and 36 minutes at Arthur Ashe Stadium. According to CBS Sports, it was Djokovic's first first-round loss at a Grand Slam since 2006, a 20-year streak of never going home early that he can't get back.

The number that defines what happened Sunday night is 78. That's how many consecutive opening-round Grand Slam matches Djokovic had won coming in, per CBS Sports, the longest such streak in the Open era for either men or women. It's gone now, taken out by a 25-year-old who was appearing in just his second US Open.

The scorecard doesn't explain half of it. According to a report from the Associated Press carried by ABC News, Djokovic grinded through physical ailments from the first ball and made mistake after mistake. He vomited courtside multiple times, cramped in the late sets, needed a doctor to bring him pills, and had his lower back worked on during a medical timeout between the fourth and fifth sets, as reported by Sports Illustrated. He came into this tournament off a first-round loss in Cincinnati earlier this month, his first action since Jannik Sinner beat him in the Wimbledon semis, and the hope was the extra rest would help. It didn't.

CBS Sports reported that Djokovic committed 70 unforced errors in the match, 29 of them in the final two sets alone. Navone, for his part, won 11 of the final 12 games. You don't beat Djokovic in the fifth set in a fair fight. Sunday night wasn't a fair fight.

The back story here matters. Djokovic has been chasing his 25th Grand Slam title for three years, and this loss guarantees that wait runs at least into 2027, if he keeps playing. According to CBS Sports, he's now gone 12 consecutive Slams without a title, tying the longest drought of his career, from 2005 to 2007. His ranking will fall outside the ATP top 10 for the first time since July 2018, per E! News, and for the first time since 2003, neither Djokovic, Roger Federer, nor Rafael Nadal will appear in the second round of a Slam.

Post-match, Djokovic didn't hide from it. According to E! News, he told reporters after the loss, "I didn't enjoy myself," and acknowledged a long-running health issue he's been managing for years.

Navone, the 25-year-old Argentinian who earlier this year won his first ATP singles title, gets to move on and deal with the fact that his career has a dividing line in it now, before he beat Djokovic and after. The Olympics.com report out of Arthur Ashe had him finishing just before midnight in New York.

The question the sport can't ignore is the one nobody wants to answer directly: how much does Djokovic have left? A man who built his entire reputation on outlasting people in five sets just got outlasted in five sets by a kid who barely has an ATP résumé. His body quit before his will did, which is the one thing that was supposed to be impossible with this guy.

Maybe he comes back in Melbourne and wins number 25. He's done it before after people wrote him off. But the 2006 version of Djokovic, a teenager losing in the first round of the Australian Open, is two decades and 24 Slams ago. This version is 39, sick on the court at Flushing Meadows, and walking out in the first round. Those are different problems.

Sources cited:
- CBS Sports (https://www.cbssports.com/tennis/news/2026-us-open-results-novak-djokovic-mariano-navone-upset-record/)
- ABC News (Associated Press) (https://abcnews.com/Sports/wireStory/novak-djokovic-loses-opening-round-us-open-time-136079604)
- Sports Illustrated / OnSI (https://www.si.com/onsi/serve/news/novak-djokovic-reveals-what-went-wrong-first-round-us-open-upset-01m1chdf80ff)
- Olympics.com (https://www.olympics.com/en/news/tennis-us-open-2026-novak-djokovic)
- E! News (https://www.eonline.com/news/1435586/novak-djokovic-addresses-throwing-up-breaking-down-during-us-open-defeat)