Novak Djokovic’s US Open Loss Marks the End of Golden Era in a Rare Sight After 23 Years

In the end, it wasn’t meant to be for Novak Djokovic despite putting in all the hard work. Yesterday, he lost out to Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinal to end his dream of winning his 25th Grand Slam title at the US Open this year. Strangely, for Djokovic, he reached the last four of all the Grand Slam tournaments this year but couldn’t progress through to the finals. With this, it marked the end of an era for the Big Three in sport as a rare feat ended after 23 years.

It was the first time in 23 years that none among Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal reached a final of a Grand Slam tournament in a year. Although Federer retired three years back and Nadal last year, Djokovic was still going strong and reached at least one Grand Slam final every year for the last seven years. However, this year, he couldn’t progress beyond the semifinals, as this was the first season since 2002 where no member of the Big Three reached a Grand Slam final.

While the era of the Big Three has ended, the era of Sincaraz looks to be taking over. Sinner has reached the final of all four major tournaments this year, while Alcaraz won the French Open title and reached the Wimbledon final, apart from his summit clash against Sinner tomorrow in New York.

Meanwhile, Djokovic was completely outplayed by Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinal yesterday. He even admitted how difficult it was to defeat Alcaraz and Sinner in Grand Slams, saying, “I can do only as much as I can do. Yeah, it will be very difficult for me in the future to overcome the hurdle of Sinner, Alcaraz, in the best-of-five on the Grand Slams. I think I have a better chance best-of-three, but best-of-five, it’s tough.”

Meanwhile, Djokovic finds himself in a strange situation. Sports commentator Catherine Whitaker admitted that Djokovic will have some difficult decisions to make about his future.

Novak Djokovic’s loss to Carlos Alcaraz raises question marks on his future

With time running out for Djokovic in his career, his retirement is nearing with each passing day. On the other hand, the Serb has performed decently this season, especially in the majors, where he reached the last four in all four Grand Slam tournaments. Thus, Whitaker felt that Djokovic is left in a confusing spot, whether to call time on his career or not.

She said, “There’s so many layers to this, how it reflects on the rest of men’s tennis. You know, what is Djokovic supposed to do? Because you can’t walk away from a career when you’re reliably reaching Grand Slam semi-finals and you’re so clearly the third-best player in the world. And yet, I totally understand why that’s not enough for him, not enough to get him out of bed every day and do what he has to do to his body, to get himself in this position. What a strange place he’s in.”

Nonetheless, Djokovic is eager to win his 25th major title and would look to continue that pursuit next year. Do you think that the Serb can win a 25th Grand Slam title? Let us know your views in the comments below.