Golden Gamble Falls Flat: Djokovic’s Shocking Paris Olympics Upset Ends 7-Year Streak

Lost 1-3 to world No. 28 Popy Lin in the third round of the US Open tennis men’s singles

Novak Djokovic (2nd, Serbia), who has won 24 major tennis tournaments, has left empty-handed this year. He was eliminated in the third round of the men’s singles at the US Open Tennis Tournament (total prize money of 75 million dollars, approximately 100 billion won) held at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, USA on the 31st (Korean time).

Djokovic, the winner of this tournament last year, lost 1-3 (4-6 4-6 6-2 4-6) to world number 28 Alexei Popyrin (Australia) on this day.

With this, Djokovic has finished the season without winning any of the four major tournaments this year. This is the first time in seven years that Djokovic has not won a major tournament since 2017.

This is also the first time Djokovic has failed to advance to the round of 16 at a major tournament since his second-round exit at the 2017 Australian Open.

Djokovic won gold at the Paris Olympics, completing a career Golden Grand Slam, but struggled to qualify for the US Open the following year.

“I used up a lot of energy at the Paris Olympics,” he said in a post-game interview. “When I arrived in New York, I was already feeling a bit tired, both mentally and physically.”

He continued, “But since it was the US Open, I tried to do my best with every shot,” but he also said, “I was physically lacking, and my serve was the worst.”

Among the ‘Big 3’ in the men’s singles of this tournament, Carlos Alcaraz (3rd, Spain) lost 0-3 (1-6 5-7 4-6) to Botic van der Jantjolf (74th, Netherlands) in the second round the day before, and with Djokovic also falling today, only Yannick Sinner (1st, Italy) remained in the draw.

Sinner will face Christopher O’Connell (87th, Australia) on September 1 for a spot in the round of 16.