There was a big upset in the US Open 2024 for the second consecutive day. Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, who has won 24 Grand Slams, lost in the third round of the tournament on Saturday. He was defeated by 28th seed Alexei Popyrin of Australia 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. The match was played at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. In this way, he could not make it to the fourth round of the US Open for the first time in 18 years. Djokovic has not been able to win any Grand Slam this year and this is happening for the first time since 2017.
Djokovic was the defending champion of the US Open. He won this tournament in 2023 by defeating Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.
A day earlier on August 30, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, who has won 4 Grand Slams, was knocked out of the second round by B. van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands. Alcaraz had won the US Open in 2022.
Djokovic and Alcaraz had won the Gold and Silver medals respectively at the Paris Olympics earlier in August and were expected to make a deep run in the final Grand Slam of the year. However, both have been ousted from the tournament in the first week itself.
With the two former champions out, focus will be on world number 1 Jannik Sinner to win his maiden US Open. He will face Australian Christopher O’Connell later in the day.