"He didn't have the focus or that fire": Martina Navratilova not 'surprised' to see Novak Djokovic's third-round exit from US Open

Former world number one Martina Navratilova has stated that she is not ‘surprised’ to see Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic suffer a shocking defeat in the US Open 2024. The 37-year-old is regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis in the singles category in the Open era.

Djokovic suffered a shocking defeat in the third round of the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year. He lost to Australia’s Alexei Popyrin with a score of 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. The result was significant for a number of reasons. It was the first time in seven years that Djokovic failed to secure a Grand Slam title in a calendar year. After the encounter, the Belgrade-born star admitted that he played arguably the worst tennis of his career in the tournament and that playing in the third round was a ‘success’ for him.

Former world number one Navratilova spoke to Sky Sports, where she stated that she was not surprised at all to see Djokovic struggle in the competition. She stated that the former world number one was short of ‘fire’ to go all the way in New York this year.

"His goal for the year was to get the Olympic gold medal, and he got that done, so I'm not surprised he didn't have the focus or that fire," said Navratilova. "It's impossible to keep it going consistently. When you have a slight off day when you are older, it's way worse than when you're 25. Everything gets harder, takes longer. Recovery from training hard, recovery from injury. You want to train less but then you're in worse shape. I just don't see how he can stay motivated. If anybody can, it's him, but he has got to play a little bit more than he has been playing. If he pulls back too much…you have to be match tough. You can't practice that."