Unseeded Mariano Navone stunned No. 4 seed and four-time U.S. Open champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 (5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 on the first day of the Grand Slam’s main draw late Sunday in New York.
Djokovic, 39, struggled physically throughout the marathon match lasting four hours and 36 minutes, having trouble moving at times and getting physically ill on multiple occasions.
“I think it was obvious that an awful feeling on the court for me,” Djokovic said of his health condition, made worse by the heat and humidity. “It is something that I’ve been carrying, unfortunately, pretty much every match this year. You know, vomiting, throwing up, serious issue there, and then my whole body starts to collapse, basically cramping and pain, and the back just gave up in the end, and shoulder, and I couldn’t close it out, break up in the fourth, but just struggled all the way since the fourth game of the match.
“And again, don’t want to take too much out of his win,” he continued. “Congrats to him; he’s a nice guy, fighter, but you know, I didn’t enjoy myself.”
Djokovic had never lost a first-round match at the U.S. Open. The 24-time major champion from Serbia had not lost in the first round of a major since the 2006 Australian Open.
“It’s amazing,” Navone said. “The way we played, five sets against the GOAT. … I’m very happy. I don’t know, what can I say?”
Argentina’s Navone, 25, was 0-4 in five-set matches and 12-29 in tour-level matches on hard courts when he faced Djokovic at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Djokovic was 42-12 in career five-set matches and has 101 tour-level titles.
Navone converted six of 17 of his break-point opportunities while saving 8 of 12. Djokovic had slightly more aces (10-9) and double faults (10-8) as well as more winners (46-36) and unforced errors (70-34).
“It’s unbelievable. It means a lot for me,” Navone said of his first time facing Djokovic, one of his idols. “It’s a dream come true, I mean seriously, 100%. Now I have to recover. I think it’s almost 12 o’clock, so we have to go to sleep.”
No. 7 seed Daniil Medvedev avoided the fate that befell him at the U.S. Open in 2025 and worked a straight-sets victory over French qualifier Hugo Gaston 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and 14 minutes.
The 2021 U.S. Open champion from Russia lost a memorable five-set match to France’s Benjamin Bonzi in the first round last season and was fined for his on-court behavior, exacerbated by a photographer entering the court of play while Bonzi was serving for the match.
No such drama occurred this time for Medvedev, perhaps especially locked in after he was shown the door in the first round of the tune-up event last week in Winston-Salem, N.C.
“The last couple of weeks were not easy but, you know how it is, sometimes you lose matches, sometimes you win,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview. “I’m happy that today I managed to produce a high level of tennis. I felt like I did everything I wanted to do well. I finished the match strong. I started the match strong. I’m really glad the way I played.”
Medvedev out-aced Gaston 10-0 and won a stellar 38 of his 46 first-service points (82.6%). He saved the only break point he faced and will meet the winner between wild card Sebastian Gorzny and Belgium’s Raphael Collignon in the second round.
The top American man in action was No. 20 seed Tommy Paul, who got past Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.
Wong served up 15 aces to Paul’s nine and charged back from down 5-3 to force a tiebreaker and win the first set. Paul found another gear after that.
“I feel like I started the match really, really well,” Paul said in his on-court interview. “Obviously had a little hiccup there at the end of the first set and didn’t think I played too well there in the breaker. I knew I had to up my intensity in the second (set) and the rest of the match, really.
“I wanted to get the crowd a little bit involved. I think we had some good points, and it was fun to play with you guys.”
Czech No. 18 seed Jiri Lehecka defeated Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2. French No. 26 seed Arthur Rinderknech beat Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro 6-7 (4), 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-2, while No. 27 Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina topped the Czech Republic’s Vit Kopriva 6-3, 6-4, 6-0.
The first seeded player to go down in the men’s singles draw was No. 29 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain, as Frenchman Luca Van Assche earned a 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 upset. Norrie is just five spots above Van Assche in the ATP rankings (No. 35 vs. No. 40), but the Frenchman was the better player Sunday. He won 49 of his 58 first-service points (84.5%) and Norrie managed just 43 of 75 (57.3%).
In a night match, No. 15 seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan eliminated American wild card J.J. Wolf 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
–Field Level Media
