- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- Goodbye Tito? Tomb at risk as Serbs argue over Yugoslav legacy
- Restoration experts piece together silent Sherlock Holmes mystery
- Sinner avoids Shanghai deja vu with assured Shelton win
- Pyongyang to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea
- Trumpet star Marsalis says jazz creates 'balance' in divided world
- No children left on Greece's famed but emptying island
- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
- Climate change made deadly Hurricane Helene more intense: study
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
- Sega ninja game 'Shinobi' gets movie treatment
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
- Pacific island nations swamped by global drug trade
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
Djokovic falls to Aussie Popyrin in latest US Open shocker
Novak Djokovic's latest bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title crashed to a halt on Friday as 28th-ranked Alexei Popyrin knocked the defending champion out of the US Open third round.
One day after third seed Carlos Alcaraz slumped to a shock defeat against 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp, 25-year-old Popyrin robbed the tournament of another superstar with a 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 victory.
Popyrin handed Djokovic his earliest US Open exit in 18 years and his earliest Grand Slam exit since he fell in the second round of the Australian Open in 2017 -- which was also the last year the Serbian great failed to claim a single Grand Slam title.
Although he won the Olympic gold he had long coveted at the Paris Games, an uneven season that included knee surgery saw Djokovic come up empty in the majors.
He had beaten Popyrin in three prior encounters, including at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year.
But a career-high 14 double faults -- 49 unforced errors total -- were too much for Djokovic to overcome.
"It was just an awful match for me," Djokovic said. "I mean, I tried so many things, and sometimes that's an issue ... you move away from the basics that work. You lose the foundation. You lose the movement, the timing, the rhythm, the tempo, everything, whether it's a serve or any other shot."
Popyrin, coming off the biggest title of his career at the Montreal Masters, saved five break points in the sixth game of the match, swinging fearlessly to seize the first two sets.
Djokovic gave himself some breathing room with an early break in the third. Popyrin clawed back only for Djokovic to break him twice more, the Serbian taking full advantage of Popyrin's mounting errors.
But the Aussie responded in a tense fourth set, saving break points in the second game before breaking again for a 3-2 lead.
He stayed patient as Djokovic saved three break points and when the Serbian double faulted to gift him another Popyrin capitalized with a blistering forehand winner and let out a massive roar.
Djokovic delivered four double faults in dropping his serve to trail 5-2. He won the next two games, but Popyrin claimed the match with a love game.
"I was waiting for him to kind of step up," Popyrin said.
"I didn't want to be one of those moments where Novak kind of stepped up and came back from two sets to love down. It was kind of extra motivation for me not to do that and to win that fourth set."
Popyrin will next face Frances Tiafoe, who beat fellow American Ben Shelton 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-3 in a pulsating afternoon contest on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Tiafoe avenged a quarter-final loss to Shelton in New York last year, withstanding 23 aces with a brilliant return display that saw him muster 21 break points and convert five.
That included one break in each of the last two sets.
World number six Andrey Rublev of Russia beat Czech Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 and eighth-seeded Norwegian Casper Ruud rallied from two sets down to beat 19-year-old Shang Juncheng of China 6-7 (1/7), 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-1.
- Gauff rallies -
Defending women's champion Coco Gauff survived late-match drama in a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Elina Svitolina.
Gauff's third-set surge had carried her to triple match point at 5-2, but she delivered a pair of double faults and Svitolina saved another with a blazing backhand on the way to a break.
But Gauff broke Svitolina at love in the next game to lock up the win.
Gauff next faces fellow American Emma Navarro, who upset her in the fourth round at Wimbledon. Navarro beat Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
All the drama on Ashe Stadium meant second-seeded Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka didn't get underway on the cavernous court that seats nearly 24,000 until after midnight.
After a slow start, she wrapped up a 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova at 1:48am.
Seventh-seeded Olympic gold medallist Zheng Qinwen of China, who rallied from a set down in each of her first two matches, dispatched Germany's Jule Niemeier 6-2, 6-1.
Zheng next faces Croatian Donna Vekic in a rematch of the Paris Olympics gold medal match.
L.Miller--AMWN