Tennis: Novak Djokovic pulls out of the U.S. Open

World number one Novak Djokovic was hoping to defend his title at the U.S. Open this week, but his fourth-round match against Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka ended earlier than the Serb would have wanted. Wawrinka won the first two sets 6-4, 7-5 and then in the third set he gained a 2-1 lead after Djokovic made a double fault. That's when Djokovic decided to pull out of the match and leave the tournament as well, a decision that was met with boos by part of the New York crowd. The reason for the withdrawal was pain in the right shoulder, a pain that Djokovic had been carrying for weeks. 

Most likely those fans believed that Djokovic decided to end the match early because he was losing, but any tennis fan that has watched the Serb throughout his career knows that something like that can not be true. The world number one declined to comment on the fans' attitude, but Stan Wawrinka defended him: "He's an amazing champion. If he has to retire, it's not the best for a tennis player to have to leave the court like that." 

"I'm sorry for the crowd. They came to see a full match but it wasn't to be," said Djokovic. "It is very frustrating. Of course it hurts that I had to retire. Some days the pain has been higher, some days with less intensity. Obviously I was taking different stuff to kill the pain instantly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. You just know when you know, when you feel like you're not able to hit the shot any more." 

Djokovic was the favourite to win this year's U.S. Open, it would have been his 17th Grand Slam title and a step forward in the legendary race with Rafael Nadal, who has 18 titles, and Roger Federer, who has 20. Speaking of Federer, the 38-year-old Swiss had an almost flawless performance in the fourth round at the U.S. Open, defeating Belgium's David Goffin 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 in just 78 minutes. 

Rafael Nadal is now the favourite to win the tournament, he is 11/10 at William Hill to get the title, while Roger Federer is 9/4 to win it.