novak djokovic

Every phase of Sunday’s U.S. Open men’s final bent the plot further and further away from what a tennis observer has come to expect: Novak Djokovic looked sluggish as he ran side-to-side on the baseline, got wrecked in backhand-to-backhand exchanges, failed to figure out an opponent’s serve, went into last-ditch serve-and-volley mode, cried into a towel mid-match, earned the New York crowd’s support, and lost a major final to someone younger than him.