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Is Novak Djokovic’s first tennis season without a Grand Slam title in seven years a sign?

Published

2 years ago

September 1, 2024

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Is Novak Djokovic’s first tennis season without a Grand Slam title in seven years a sign?

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NEW YORK — It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Twenty-six days after Novak Djokovic won Olympic gold in Paris, he finished off his second-least profitable Grand Slam season since 2009 with a stunning third-round defeat to Alexei Popyrin at the U.S. Open. With a few months remaining on the 2024 tennis calendar, he could end the year without a Tour-level title for the first time since 2005, while simultaneously securing what he describes as the “greatest achievement of his career”.

When has it ever been a case of either/or for Djokovic? The 24-time major winner is generally only satisfied when he is winning everything. Settling for anything less has generally been anathema to the man who has dominated tennis, with a blip or two, since the start of 2011.

As it so often goes in this sport, father time is undefeated. At 37 , perhaps the moment that was always coming has finally arrived. Not in a steep decline, nor an end to his relevance at Grand Slam tournaments. Just his becoming a player that can still hit the heights on occasion, but not all the time and not all season long.

Players who have beaten him include Alejandro Tabilo, Tomas Machac, Luca Nardi, and now Popyrin. His defeats at the majors to his two biggest rivals, Jannik Sinner in Australia and Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon, were both desperately one-sided. That Djokovic reached that Wimbledon final just six weeks after surgery on the medial meniscus of his right knee is testament to the fact that he can still be a force at Grand Slams. That Alcaraz cut him down so easily in that final is testament to the feeling that his defeats now, after so long, have the capacity to become ugly very quickly.

Novak Djokovic left New York without a Grand Slam title to his name this year. (Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)

It happened against Popyrin, in front of 24,000 on Arthur Ashe. Djokovic has been in recovery for months, slowly upping his physical exertion, and in that time, his game has necessarily suffered. His ball-striking and tactical nous are still there, and he has even added a turbo boost when he needs it, most memorably ripping two forehands past Alcaraz in the second-set tiebreak at the Olympics.

His thoughts after his defeat to Popyrin didn’t account for any of that.

“I have played some of the worst tennis I have ever played, honestly, serving by far the worst ever,” Djokovic told reporters in a short post-match press conference as Friday night ticked into Saturday morning.

Ever since he returned from surgery, his service motion has been ungainly, particulary on the follow-through. He has looked unsteady as he lands, often stumbling into the court. But the ball has still gone in the box. Not so across this tournament, where he made 52 percent of his first serves, against a career average in the mid-60s. He hit 32 double faults in 38 service games across three rounds.

He also acknowledged that it had been difficult coming here so soon after the high of the Olympics, and that he wasn’t really in the right state to compete. “I spent a lot of energy winning the gold, and I did arrive to New York just not feeling fresh mentally and physically,” he said.

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“But because it’s the U.S. Open, I gave it a shot and I tried my best.”

All of this is totally understandable — it’s just, this is Djokovic. Aside from the 2016 to 2018 comedown after he completed the career Grand Slam, what’s been so remarkable about him is his ability to always go again, even as he’s ticked monumental achievement after monumental achievement off his list.

That wasn’t the case against Popyrin. He looked lifeless, struggling to rouse himself in the way he normally does, and he was strikingly quiet — barely making a sound as he struck the ball — even in moments of high exertion and stress. The crowd play was half-hearted. The tight games invariably went against him, rather than for him. The familiar first-set rope-a-dope that turns into a dominant four-set win never came.

In the third set and the early part of the fourth, when Popyrin was collapsing into serves, missing and lambasting himself, it looked as if the inevitable was coming. But it wasn’t the inevitable of the last 20 years that arrived. It was the inevitable of the last eight months.

Alexei Popyrin overcame a wobble midway through the match to seize control in the fourth set. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)

As his Grand Slam season ends, the phenomenal achievement of winning Olympic gold increasingly looks like a shiny distraction, in analytical terms. Nothing can diminish the scale of doing that at 37, not least Djokovic’s reaction as he collapsed to the clay and shook with tears, but it has still been a pretty disappointing year for him. There are mitigating circumstances — not just Djokovic’s knee, but being struck on the head by a metal water bottle in Rome — that have made achieving his usual heights even more challenging.

He will be back for the Australian Open, desperate to wrestle the title he has won 10 times back from Jannik Sinner, but what happened on Friday wasn’t a blip. It was not an earth-shattering result, like when he lost to Sam Querrey at Wimbledon in 2016, which turned the tennis world upside down. Losing to Popyrin, who ran him close at this year’s Australian Open and at Wimbledon too, was in keeping with many of his defeats this year.

Winning in Paris was the outlier, and while a Grand Slam final; semifinal; and quarterfinal is a year that the vast, vast majority of players would retire on at any age, that isn’t how Djokovic thinks. Until 2024, he had won a major title every year since 2010, but for 2017.

“Sitting from a larger perspective, of course I have to be content,” Djokovic said when asked to take a longer-term view himself. Seeing whether Djokovic has the ability to reset his goals in the next year or so, and whether he is happy to do so, will be one of the defining stories in tennis in 2025.

(Top photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)

Sports

Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo makes NBA history with 83-point game

Published

8 hours ago

March 11, 2026

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Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo makes NBA history with 83-point game

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Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo made NBA history on Tuesday night.

Adebayo scored 83 points, all while setting league marks for free throws made and attempted in a game for the Miami Heat in a 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards. It is the second-highest scoring game for a player ever, only to Wilt Chamberlain’s famed 100-point game.

“An absolutely surreal night,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters after the game.

Adebayo started with a 31-point first quarter. He was up to 43 at halftime, 62 by the end of the third quarter. And then came the fourth, when the milestones kept falling despite facing double-, triple- and what once appeared to be a quadruple-team from a Wizards defense that kept sending him to the foul line.

He finished 20 of 43 from the field, 36 of 43 from the foul line, 7 for 22 from 3-point range.

After the game, he was seen in tears while he hugged his mother, Marilyn Blount, before leaving the floor after the game.

“Welp won’t have the highest career high in the house anymore,” Adebayo’s girlfriend, four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, wrote on social media, “but at least it gives me something to go after.”

MAGIC’S ANTHONY BLACK MAKES INCREDIBLE DUNK OVER FOUR DEFENDERS IN HISTORIC NBA GAME

Bam Adebayo #13 of the Miami Heat celebrates during the fourth quarter of the game against the Washington Wizards at Kaseya Center on March 10, 2026, in Miami, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

The NBA’s previous best this season was 56, by Nikola Jokic for Denver against Minnesota on Christmas night. The last player to have 62 points through three quarters: one of Adebayo’s basketball heroes, Kobe Bryant, who had exactly that many through three quarters for the Los Angeles Lakers against Dallas on Dec. 20, 2005.

He wound up passing Bryant for single-game scoring as well. Bryant’s career-best was 81 — a game that was the second-best on the NBA scoring list for two decades.

Adebayo scored 31 points in the opening quarter against the Wizards, breaking the Heat record for points in any quarter — and tying the team record for points in a first half before the second quarter even started.

He finished the first half with 43 points, a team record for any half and two points better than his previous career high — for a full game, that is — of 41, set Jan. 23, 2021, against Brooklyn.

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Adebayo’s season high entering Tuesday was 32. He matched that with a free throw with 5:53 left in the second quarter, breaking the Heat first-half scoring record.

Adebayo’s 43-point first half was the NBA’s second-best in at least the last 30 seasons — going back to the start of the digital play-by-play era that began in the 1996-97 season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Jackson Thompson is a sports reporter for Fox News Digital covering critical political and cultural issues in sports, with an investigative lens. Jackson’s reporting has been cited in federal government actions related to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press and ESPN.com.

Sports

Kings lose in overtime to the Boston Bruins

Published

8 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Kings lose in overtime to the Boston Bruins

BOSTON — Charlie McAvoy scored 39 seconds into overtime and Jeremy Swayman stopped 14 shots on Tuesday night to earn the Boston Bruins their 13th straight victory at home, 2-1 over the Kings.

Mason Lohrei scored midway through the third period to break a scoreless tie. But the Kings tied it five minutes later when Drew Doughty’s shot from the blue line deflected off the heel of Bruins forward Elias Lindholm and into the net.

It was the seventh straight time the teams had gone to overtime in Boston.

In the overtime, Mark Kastelic blocked a shot in the defensive zone and made a long pass to David Pastrnak, who waited for McAvoy to come into the zone. The Bruins’ defenseman and U.S. Olympian, who went to the locker room at the end of the second period after taking a puck off his mouth, skated in on Darcy Kuemper and went to his backhand for the winner.

Kuemper stopped 21 shots for the Kings, who entered the night one point out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The victory kept Boston in possession of the East’s second wild-card spot.

Swayman tied his career high with his 25th win of the season. The Bruins haven’t lost at the TD Garden since before Christmas.

After the game, Kings forward and future Hall of Famer Anze Kopitar stayed on the ice to shake hands with the Bruins after what is expected to be his last game in Boston.

Sports

Jon Jones requests UFC release after Dana White says legend was ‘never’ considered him for White House card

Published

20 hours ago

March 10, 2026

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Jon Jones requests UFC release after Dana White says legend was ‘never’ considered him for White House card

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Mixed martial arts legend Jon Jones ended his retirement from UFC simply because he wanted a spot on the “Freedom 250” fight card at the White House in June.

But, when UFC CEO Dana White announced the card during UFC 326 this past weekend, Jones wasn’t among the fighters. As a result, he has requested a release from his UFC contract.

White was candid when asked about Jones following the UFC 326 card.

Jon Jones of the United States of America reacts after his TKO victory against Stipe Miocic of the United States of America in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16, 2024 in New York City. ((Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images))

“Never, ever, ever, which I told you guys a hundred thousands times, was Jon Jones ever even remotely in my mind to fight at the White House,” White explained, per CBS Sports. “Some guy with Meta Glasses filmed him talking about his hips – that his hips are so bad. And I don’t know if you guys saw that flag football game where he can barely run. Jon Jones retired because of his hips. He’s got arthritis in his hips. Apparently, doctors say he should have a hip replacement.”

White added that “the Jon Jones thing is bulls—,” saying that he texted the fighter’s lawyer saying he would never be on the White House card despite Jones saying he was in negotiations for it.

UFC ANNOUNCES CARD FOR WHITE HOUSE EVENT

The Meta Glasses incident White is referring to came from a viral video, where Jones, unaware he was being filmed, discussed issues with his hips to a fan.

On Monday, Jones composed a thorough response to White’s comments about him and the White House Card. He previously posted and deleted social media explanations, but Monday’s appeared to be his final statement on the matter.

UFC President Dana White speaks after UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center on Feb. 21, 2026. (Troy Taormina/Imagn Images)

“Yes, I have arthritis in my hip and it’s painful, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fight,” Jones, who retired a heavyweight champion in 2025, said. “So let me get this straight, if I had accepted the lowball offer, suddenly my hip would be fine and I’d be on the White House card? That doesn’t make sense. I even received stem cell treatment last week to get ready for the White House card, and training camp was scheduled to start today. I was preparing to be ready.

“I understand business deals fall through sometimes, but going out publicly and saying things that aren’t true isn’t right. After everything I’ve given to the UFC, the years, the title defenses, the fights, hearing that I’m ‘done’ is disappointing. Especially when as recently as Friday UFC was calling me trying to get me on that White House card for a much lower number.”

Jones finished his statement by saying he “respectfully” asks to be released from his UFC contract.

Jon Jones enters the ring before facing Stipe Miocic in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City, New York. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

“No more spins, no more games. Thank you to the real fans who know what’s up,” he wrote.

The UFC did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.

Jones is considered one of the best UFC fighters of all time, owning a 28-1-1 record, which includes his last bout with Stipe Miocic, knocking him out to take the heavyweight title belt. He is also a two-time light heavyweight champion.

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Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.