Popyrin too strong

No Major victory! Djokovic out of the US Open

Novak Djokovic lost his smile.(Bild: Getty Images/APA/Getty Images via AFP/GETTY IMAGES/Sarah Stier)

Defending champion Novak Djokovic was surprisingly knocked out in the third round of the tennis Grand Slam tournament in New York on Friday (local time). After 3:19 hours, the Serb, seeded number two, was beaten 4:6, 4:6, 6:2, 4:6 by Australian Alexei Popyrin.

Olympic champion Djokovic will have to wait for his 25th Grand Slam title; the 37-year-old has not won a major this year.

The 28th seeded Popyrin once again proved his strong hard court form and showed some inspiring tennis at times. He celebrated spectacular point wins exuberantly and repeatedly fired up the crowd in the Arthur Ashe Stadium. In preparation, Popyrin had won the Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal and now made it to the round of 16 at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career.

"Good tennis"
In the first interview, Popyrin recalled matches against Djokovic at the Australian Open and at Wimbledon. "I had my chances in those matches, but I didn't take them. This match was a bit different, I was able to take my chances and played good tennis."

Alexei Popyrin(Bild: AFP/APA/ANGELA WEISS)

The day before, Carlos Alcaraz from Spain, ranked third in the world and seeded third, had also surprisingly lost to Botic van de Zandschulp from the Netherlands in the second round. According to the tableau, there would therefore be nothing to stop Jannik Sinner (ITA-1) playing Alexander Zverev (GER-4) in the final.