Since winning at Roland Garros last year to take his career Grand Slam, Djokovic has a record of a Wimbledon third round, a final at the US Open and last night's second round elimination (his earliest defeat at a Grand Slam since Wimbledon 2008).
Considering Djokovic also relinquished the top ranking spot and now sits at No.2 in the world, for someone of the Serb's standing, it is a significant fall from grace.
His loss to the 117th ranked Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in five sets showed Djokovic was not at his peak. Istomin played very well, but you could tell that, for whatever reason, Djokovic wasn’t 100 per cent.
There’s the possibility of circulated relationship issues occurring which may be leading to issues on the court. In the tennis world, once you're at the top, it is very well noted who is, or isn’t in your supporters box and how happy you are off the court.
Djokovic has the skills to come back and win at least one Slam in 2017 but his main rival is Andy Murray who is proving to be more and more difficult to beat.
Then there’s Stan Wawrinka who can take apart anyone on his day and has won three Grand Slams.
Perhaps the newest challenger is Milos Raonic who may not be as exciting as the other personalities in the sport, but is going to win a Grand Slam in the next two years. Others such as Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev have the future but not the form as yet.
Djokovic isn’t a spent force, yet. He still wins the majority of the events he enters. Only two weeks ago he beat Murray for the Doha title. However he now appears to most players as someone who can be defeated and he has lost the ‘top dog’ title.
Roger Federer went through the same thing a little while ago and when he lost to a number of lower ranked players, he lost the reputation of being invincible. And whether or not he was back to his best, players drew more belief that they could beat him.
The same looks like it’s starting to occur for Djokovic and it’s very difficult to climb back up to the top after falling from it.
It’s not the end of the movie, but the credits could be starting to be written.
Dave Worsley is a Newshub tennis correspondent
