Novak Djokovic lost in the first round of the US Open to Argentina's Mariano Navone on Tuesday night, his earliest Grand Slam exit since Lleyton Hewitt beat him at the same event in 2006. The match ended 6-4, 7-6, 6-3. Djokovic disclosed afterward he'd been ill for three days but chose to play rather than withdraw. He is 39 years old.
This matters because Djokovic's anchor endorsement deals with Lacoste ($9M annually through 2027) and ASICS ($6M annually, auto-renews in March 2027) both contain performance escalators tied to reaching the second week of Slams. Two people familiar with the Lacoste contract say the brand can trigger renegotiation talks if he fails to reach the quarterfinals in three consecutive majors. He lost in the fourth round at Melbourne in January, the third round at Roland-Garros in June, and now the first round here. That's three.
Lacoste has been patient. The brand's Q2 tennis-category sales were up 41% year-over-year in Asia-Pacific, driven in part by Djokovic's continued dominance in that region's sports media. But the company's US tennis revenue fell 11% in the same period, and retail partners have been asking whether the Djokovic line still moves product in North America. One buyer at a major sporting goods chain said his stores sold through 68% of their Djokovic capsule inventory last quarter, down from 91% a year earlier. The illness explanation buys some time, but it doesn't reset the escalator clock.
ASICS, meanwhile, has been developing a post-Djokovic signature tennis shoe line around Jannik Sinner, who won the Australian Open in January and reached the Wimbledon final in July. Sinner's current deal with Nike runs through December 2026, and ASICS has already held two meetings with his agent, according to a person who attended one of them. If Djokovic's Melbourne result in January follows this pattern—early exit, fatigue, or injury—ASICS will have a clean narrative to pivot before the auto-renewal clause kicks in. The timing would let them announce a Sinner signing at Indian Wells in March, the sport's unofficial spring opener.
The other pressure point is the ATP's new broadcast rights negotiation for the 2028-2032 cycle, currently in quiet talks with Amazon, Apple, and a consortium led by DAZN. League executives have been pitching the next generation of stars—Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune—as the ratings engine. Djokovic's absence from the second week of the year's final Slam doesn't help the "Novak is still the draw" argument. One ATP board member said privately that Tuesday's result "makes the Alcaraz number easier to justify," referring to the Spaniard's minimum-appearance guarantees in the proposed deals.
Djokovic's team hasn't commented beyond the illness disclosure. His agent, Edoardo Artaldi, was seen in the players' lounge after the match on a call that lasted 18 minutes. Lacoste's global tennis marketing director flew into New York on Wednesday morning, one day earlier than her publicly listed schedule. She's staying at the Carlyle, three blocks from Artaldi's usual hotel.
Watch the Australian Open in January. If Djokovic reaches the second week, the Lacoste escalator resets and this becomes a non-issue. If he doesn't, expect the brand to float a "legacy ambassador" role—smaller guarantee, bigger percentage of sales, no performance triggers—before Roland-Garros. ASICS will make its Sinner decision by mid-February regardless.
The takeaway
Djokovic's first-round loss triggers sponsor performance clauses and gives ASICS a clean window to pivot to Sinner before March auto-renewals.
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