{"id":2717,"date":"2026-08-31T13:25:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2717"},"modified":"2026-08-31T13:25:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:25:55","slug":"novak-djokovic-future-addressed-after-us-open-nightmare-as-greg-rusedski-reveals-key-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2717","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic future addressed after US Open nightmare as Greg Rusedski reveals key issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg Rusedski has called for people not to write off Novak Djokovic<\/a> just yet despite him suffering his earliest Grand Slam exit in 20 years.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old lost in five sets to Mariano Navone on Sunday, as the Serbian fought back tears and threw up into a bin on Arthur Ashe Stadium as his body appeared to fail him.<\/p>\n

The 24-time major champion was one of the favourites to win the US Open<\/a>, particularly with world No 1 Jannik Sinner out injured and Carlos Alcaraz just returning from a wrist issue, but was outlasted by the Argentine 7-6 (7-5) 5-7 4-6 6-2 6-1.<\/p>\n

After the match, the former world No 1 painted a rather downbeat picture for his future as he opened up on some ongoing health problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was obvious that it was an awful feeling for me on the court,\u201d said the fourth seed. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019ve been carrying, unfortunately, pretty much every match this year: vomiting, throwing up, a serious issue there.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThen my whole body starts to collapse, cramping and pain. The back just gave up in the end, and shoulder, and I couldn\u2019t close it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic<\/a> added, \u201cI don\u2019t know [how I can solve the problem]. I don\u2019t want to go into too much detail right now. I\u2019m just trying to understand what\u2019s going on and how much longer I can keep going like this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite that, former British No 1 Rusedski<\/a> was quick to point out that Djokovic reached the final of the Australian Open, beating Sinner along the way, and made it to the last four at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the fact that he has lost two matches in a row, one at Cincinnati and one at the US Open, should not spell doom and gloom for the Serbian.<\/p>\n

He said on Off Court<\/a>, \u201cWell, we\u2019ve only seen the deterioration really this US Open and in Cincinnati. Wimbledon, we didn\u2019t see anything. He still made the semis. In the heat in Australia, he made the finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019re talking about this deterioration. It\u2019s all relative, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s only been the last few weeks since Wimbledon. Most people\u2019s careers would have been set up for life. Finals of Australia, semis of Wimbledon. That\u2019s a pretty good season for most human beings. So let\u2019s not write him off quite yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if the body still allows him to do what he needs out there, let\u2019s keep him in the game as long as, as long as he can be there. So that\u2019s the balance. Will he physically be able to sustain and will he be satisfied going out earlier at the very biggest events in the world? This is a little bit of a shock.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bad draw for him as well, the opening round. We talked about it in the lead up to the US Open saying he was in a tough section and we all knew he had a difficult opener, especially having had no form from Cincinnati and losing early.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, former US Open finalist Rusedski does believe that Djokovic\u2019s part-time schedule could be an issue. Conversely, though, the former world No 4 pointed out that Serbian may need to limit the number of tournament he enters to allow him to go deep at majors.<\/p>\n

As he put it, it is something of a \u201cchicken and egg\u201d issue. One thing that doesn\u2019t help, though, is how \u201cbrutal\u201d the competition is among the world\u2019s top 100.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the issue is, two out of three sets, no problem. But if you look at his preparation, he\u2019s not being able to get enough matches. And you know, when [Roger] Federer was at his peak, he played 12 tournaments a year, but he\u2019d win seven of those tournaments. Novak nowadays, the depth is a lot stronger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if you look like from say three to 20, it\u2019s probably slightly weaker, but then you go from 10 to 100 and the depth is brutal. So from the first round, you\u2019ve got to show up. If you\u2019re not at your best from the beginning, it makes life much more difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question for me is, if he plays more two out of three set tournaments, that\u2019s going to get him great preparation for the slams. So it\u2019s a chicken and egg. Will the body allow him to play those matches and those tournaments?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo let\u2019s see if he can get it back. And as he said, if he plays two or three set matches, there\u2019s still tournaments he can win and he can still win more events. And he still loves the love he\u2019s getting from the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHAT ELSE? US Open: John McEnroe faces calls to retire over \u2018disrespectful\u2019 Mariano Navone comments after Novak Djokovic upset<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Novak Djokovic future addressed after US Open nightmare as Greg Rusedski reveals key issue<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg Rusedski has called for people not to write off Novak Djokovic just yet despite him suffering his earliest Grand Slam exit in 20 years. The 39-year-old lost in five sets to Mariano Navone on Sunday, as the Serbian fought back tears and threw up into a bin on Arthur Ashe Stadium as his body […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}