Novak Djokovic left to count personal and professional cost of moment of madness

World No 1 has previous for poor behaviour and judgment, and both were in evidence on Sunday night as he threw away the chance to win an 18th major

For most of his career, Novak Djokovic has been chasing a shadow. And how close he was to catching the ageless king, Roger Federer. How desperate he was to wear his crown. How shattered he now is after an evening of madness at Flushing Meadows.

When the world No 1 took a spare ball from his pocket after being broken against the run of play near the end of the first set in his fourth-round match with the Spaniard, Pablo Carreño Busta, and sent it spinning innocently towards the back of the court, his whole career unravelled in slow motion.