Novak Djokovic has crashed out of the US Open to ensure that he’s lost all four of the Grand Slam semifinal matches that he’s played in 2025.
It now also means that Djokovic hasn’t won a Grand Slam title for two years, and the quest to win number 25 looks as far away as it’s ever been.
Carlos Alcaraz won this one in straight sets and although the second set was a close run thing, the Spaniard still managed to win it on a tie-breaker after trailing 0-3 in the set.
Alcaraz will have been delighted to get the daytime slot and his fitness told over Djokovic’s, with the 24-time Grand Slam winner receiving treatment on his shoulder after the second set.
Djokovic was praised by two pundits before this one, with many experts predicting him to go and beat Alcaraz before a ball had been served.
Ryan Harrison makes Novak Djokovic claim after Carlos Alcaraz comments
Remarkably, after the match, Alcaraz made some intriguing comments about his performance, suggesting that he didn’t play that well.
He said in his on-court interview: It’s a great feeling. Once again in a final here at the US Open. It feels amazing. It means a lot to me.
“Today it wasn’t the best level of the tournament for me, but I just kept a good level from the beginning until the last point. I served pretty well, which was pretty important.”
Harrison thinks those comments won’t be what Djokovic wants to hear and has suggested he might be really annoyed if he hears them back anytime soon.
He said on Sky Sports: “I hope he doesn’t listen to that back because he is going to be like ‘did you really not play that great?’
“But he is just being honest. Carlos is saying he had some errors in there, and he doesn’t make a lot of those errors in most of his matches.
“I think he knows that he will have to play his very best if he plays Sinner in the final.
Ryan Harrison shares whether he thought Novak Djokovic could win
Djokovic did seem short of his usual swagger, and once the second set was added to Alcaraz’s tally, the writing quickly started to be scribbled on the wall.
At 38, it’s hard to deny that Djokovic is going to be hard-pressed to keep up with these guys, but it was actually quite sad to see how resigned he looked on the court.
When asked if Djokovic looked like a man who felt he could win the match, Harrison said: “For me, he knows this is a daytime match and the daytime conditions are not on his side.
“The daytime conditions are going to play faster, and I think he knew he had to roll the dice and go more aggressively. He had to serve as big as he could.
“His first serve percentage was low because he was trying to hit it as big as he possibly could. I saw him rolling the dice and seeing if he could catch lightning in a bottle, but he just didn’t have it.”
Now, it remains to be seen what the future holds for Djokovic, but his chances of Grand Slam number 25 are now in tatters for another year.
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