Appreciate this golden age as it nears end

Novak Djokovic had a simple explanation for his third-round loss at the U.S. Open on the weekend: that after competing in the French Open, Wimbledon and the Olympics between May and August, the 37-year-old Serb arrived at Flushing Meadows feeling like he was out of gas.

- BRUCE ARTHUR

Novak Djokovic won gold in Paris, but was unable to get past the third round at the U.S. Open.

In isolation, it was reasonable. If you watched Djokovic’s emotional reaction to winning gold in Paris — the screaming, shaking, weeping ecstasy, that soul-emptying release — it makes perfect sense.

In the context of men’s tennis, though, it was something else: a signpost demarcating the past from the future, sealing off a golden age. The great Djokovic doesn’t run out of gas: he might get hurt, he might go on errant side quests over vaccination, but he fights to the end. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were like that, too: they almost always had to be slain. Federer has yielded to time, and Andy Murray finally yielded in Paris as well, and Nadal is still searching for something, at a distance from his own peak.

And while there is likely no perfect demarcation point, this is clearly a moment. Djokovic was magnificent in Paris, and won three Slams in 2023, but when he lost to 25-year-old Aussie Alexei Popyrin at the U.S. Open on the weekend, it made this the first year since 2002 that none of Federer, Nadal or Djokovic won a Slam in a calendar year, and the first time since 2004 that the big three didn’t combine to win at least two.