The clock crept close to midnight in New York on Sunday night, and by 12:04am Novak Djokovic, the #4 seed and a 24-time major champion, was out of the U.S. Open in the first round. The man who sent him packing was Mariano Navone of Argentina — unranked, unheralded, and unbothered by the résumé across the net. Djokovic, 39 years old, fought through sickness and body cramps the whole way, the kind of night where the body quits before the will does. A first-round exit for a 24-time major winner is the sort of headline you read twice to be sure. But sports do not care about seedings or trophy counts once the ball is in play, and Navone made that plain. The great ones fall too, and this one fell early. We'll keep our eyes on the rest of the draw as it unfolds in New York. Who might be next to fall by an upset? — Patrick
