Novak Djokovic did not need long to point at the reason for his second-round exit in Cincinnati.
Beaten 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 by Argentina’s Thiago Agustín Tirante on Saturday, the 24-time Grand Slam champion sat with reporters afterwards and disclosed a health issue he says has followed him for years.
“It’s just a condition that I have, healthwise, that has been bothering me for the past couple of years,” Djokovic said, without naming or elaborating on the problem.
“A lot of issues, especially when it is humid and it is hot.”
A brutal third game and a medical timeout
Ohio delivered plenty of both. Djokovic won the opening set 6-2, then began to give way in the second. A third game that stretched to 18 minutes, nine deuces and four saved break points seemed to break him, and immediately after it he took a medical timeout as the physio and then a doctor came onto court with ice towels.
Between points he was down on his hands and knees. At one stage he appeared to vomit into a towel. Tirante, a 25-year-old Argentine, broke serve for 5-4 in the decider and closed out the biggest result of his career in almost two hours and 45 minutes.
“This is the best win of my career,” Tirante said. “I really did a good job inside the court.”
Djokovic points to a years-long condition
Djokovic offered no diagnosis and no timeline, only that the condition flares in heat and humidity and has been present for years. He also indicated Saturday may have been his last outing in Cincinnati.
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“It looks like I won’t be back, unfortunately, to play here,” the Serb said.
The choice of words is striking from a player who has treated Cincinnati as a regular stop on his US Open build-up, and it lands with the year’s final Grand Slam almost on top of him.
Thirteen days to Flushing Meadows
The US Open main draw begins on August 30 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. Djokovic goes into the year’s final Grand Slam without a warm-up win under his belt.
Cincinnati was his first competitive match since a Wimbledon semifinal defeat by Jannik Sinner over a month ago. He now has under two weeks to recover and reset, chasing a record-extending 25th major with a condition he has just told the world worsens in the exact conditions New York routinely serves up in late August.
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