Djokovic Falls in Cincinnati, Hints at Farewell

The third game of the second set in Mason lasted 18 minutes. Nine deuces, four break points that Novak Djokovic fought off, and between points a sight that said more than the scoreboard could: after one long rally, the Serbian player dropped to his hands and knees and stayed doubled over until the umpire called time. He won that game anyway.

Right after it, he called for a medical timeout. A physiotherapist came out first, then a doctor, with ice towels and an assessment of his condition. Once Tiago Agustin Tirante took the second set, both players went off to cool down in the locker room, and by the time they returned, the match already had a new master.

The afternoon in Ohio was hot and humid, and after the match Djokovic put exactly that at the top of the list.

It was a combination of the heat and the humidity, all of those things. Everything that comes with it makes the situation worse.

He went into more detail on why such conditions hit him harder than they do other players. At the press conference he said the cause is a health condition that has bothered him for years and that it causes him, as he put it, a lot of problems, especially when it is humid and hot.

The Match by the Numbers

Tirante won 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 after two hours and 44 minutes in the second round at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio. The Argentine is 25 and ranked 50th on the ATP list, while Djokovic is 39 and the world’s fifth-ranked player. The Serb took the first set without much trouble, then everything turned in the second.

The match statistics do not read like those of a loser. Djokovic saved 13 of 15 break points, meaning his opponent had to do almost all the work in rallies rather than off Djokovic’s own service games. What that number does not show is how much each of those saved games cost him.

How the Match Turned

The ninth game of the third set decided it. Tirante earned three break points and Djokovic saved all three, then handed him a fourth with a missed drop shot, and this time the Argentine converted it. In the next game Tirante served for the match and closed it out when Djokovic missed another drop shot on match point.

For a player who cracked the top 50 for the first time this week, it is the biggest result of his career, and he described it exactly that way.

I think this is the best win of my career. I think I did a really good job on the court. I handled the nerves of playing against a legend like Novak very well.

Is Djokovic Returning to Cincinnati?

This is the part that pushes the story beyond a single lost match. Asked whether he would play in Cincinnati again, Djokovic said: “It looks like, unfortunately, I won’t be coming back to play here.” When reporters pressed him for a clearer answer, he added: “Of course I hope so, but it looks more likely that I won’t, unfortunately.”

If that turns out to be true, his calendar would lose a tournament where he holds a record of 45 wins and 13 losses and three titles, won in 2018, 2020 and 2023. The loss also snapped his run of ten straight wins in Cincinnati.

The US Open Is Two Weeks Away

This was his first match after more than a month off. The last time he played was in the Wimbledon semifinal against world number one Jannik Sinner, and he had not stepped onto a tour court since.

His next appearance is the US Open, which starts on August 30 in New York, a city where the humidity in the last week of August can be just as brutal as it was in Ohio. Djokovic has two weeks there to find the rhythm he never even got the chance to look for in Mason.

What happened last night was not a loss to a better tennis player. It was a match in which Djokovic fought two separate battles, one against Tirante and one against the conditions, and the second one cost him the first. That is a gap that can be closed in New York, but it will not close on its own.