Laver 'saddened' by Djokovic's early exit

Rod Laver said on Sunday he was saddened by Novak Djokovic's failure to break his 47-year long Grand Slam record.

World No 1 Djokovic went down to a stunning defeat to No 47-ranked Sam Querrey of the US in the third round at Wimbledon on Saturday in what was his earliest exit at a major in seven years.

The loss also meant that Laver remains the last man to sweep the calendar grand slam, in 1969.

"I'm still happy to have the title, but I don't own it," Australian legend Laver told ESPN.

"I would have liked to have been at the US Open and be the first to shake Djokovic's hand if he did it. Don Budge did that for me in 1962 at Forest Hills."

Budge's message to Laver was: "Welcome to an exclusive club."

Budge, an American, won the first calendar grand slam in 1938 before Laver achieved the feat twice, in 1962 and 1969.

Djokovic's run was the closest anyone has come since. He had already captured the Australian and French Open titles in 2016 and was heavily favored to defend his Wimbledon crown.

That would have left just the defense of his US Open trophy standing in the way of him and a place in the record books.

Laver, 77, believes Djokovic might have been lacking motivation after finally winning his first French Open last month, which gave him ownership of all four Slams at the same time.

"He just wasn't himself, something was off," said Laver.

"I think maybe Novak felt holding all four titles and being the defending champion of all four was already a (calendar) grand slam in his mind - so even if it wasn't in the calendar year, it didn't matter.

"Way back in there somewhere you are thinking one thing, that it doesn't matter, but you are thinking it does matter.

"Those are two different thoughts to have when you are playing and trying to concentrate on winning."

Djokovic said afterward he hadn't been "100 percent healthy" in the match with Querrey, and he was spotted rubbing his left shoulder as the match slipped away.

But the 29-year-old refused to dwell on failing to grab Laver's record.

"I managed to win four Grand Slams in a row. I want to try to focus on that rather than on failure," Djokovic said.

"Coming into Wimbledon, I knew that mentally it's not going to be easy to kind of remotivate myself."