When Does Novak Play Again at the Us Open
Novak Djokovic Reaches U.Southward. Open Terminal, One Victory From a Grand Slam
Djokovic beat Alexander Zverev, 4-half-dozen, 6-2, 6-4, 4-half dozen, half-dozen-two, and has a chance to become the outset homo since 1969 to win a calendar-year Grand Slam. He will play Daniil Medvedev in the final on Sun.
Twenty-seven downward, one to go.
With a five-set win over Alexander Zverev of Federal republic of germany on Friday night, Novak Djokovic moved to within a single friction match victory of pulling off the most hallowed achievement in tennis.
Afterward winning the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon this twelvemonth and knocking out his first challengers at the U.Southward. Open up, Djokovic now has to defeat only Daniil Medvedev of Russia in Sun's final to become the first man to win the Grand Slam in a calendar twelvemonth in 52 years.
And he got there in mode, coming from backside early on, so surviving an onslaught from an opponent who seemed for a time that he might just accept Djokovic's number. Zverev came close, forcing Djokovic to get the distance in a grueling 4-6, 6-two, 6-four, 4-vi, vi-2 win, only the razor-thin margin only made Djokovic'south number at the M Slams in 2021 seem more mysterious.
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The win on Friday dark set the stage for one of the nigh remarkable weekends in tennis. On Saturday, the teenage sensations Emma Raducanu of Britain and Leylah Fernandez of Canada, who take absorbed their countries and the crowds at the U.S. Open, will compete for the women's title in the unlikeliest of finals.
Raducanu, 18 and ranked 150th in the world, was barely known two weeks ago and at present is the showtime player to reach a Grand Slam terminal after making information technology into the main draw through the qualifying tournament. Fernandez, who turned 19 this week and is ranked 73rd, was until a few days agone known as footling more than a scrappy, undersized battler whose futurity was anyone'due south guess.
On Sunday, Djokovic will have on Medvedev and play for history. He is tied with his biggest rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, in the race for the most career 1000 Slam titles with 20, a competition that Djokovic is adamant to win so he tin can cement his legacy as the greatest role player ever. Merely that race may take a few more than years to reach its conclusion. At this bespeak, though, it is nearly incommunicable to believe that Federer and Nadal, who are battling age and injury, can win a agenda-yr K Slam. It is the thing that would make Djokovic the biggest of the Big 3 forever.
"The job is not done," Djokovic said only by midnight Sat morning time. "The excitement is there. The motivation is there, without a dubiety. Probably more than always. But I have one more to get."
Djokovic went into Fri dark'due south battle with the quaternary-seeded Zverev after playing what he said were the three best sets of the tournament in a quarterfinal defeat of Matteo Berrettini: a iv-set, come-from-behind win over a younger, bigger and more powerful opponent.
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Djokovic, 34, was going to need a repeat performance against Zverev, a so-chosen side by side generation star who has figured out in the terminal year how to keep his cool in the biggest moments. In the U.Southward. Open final terminal year, Zverev blew a two-fix lead, and even served for the championship, only to lose to Dominic Thiem in a tiebreaker at the end of a fifth set that descended into a parade of slices, errors and double faults.
That version of Zverev has disappeared in contempo months, peculiarly against Djokovic. At the Tokyo Olympics, Zverev roared dorsum from a set and a service pause downwards to overwhelm Djokovic in a semifinal.
When the describe for the U.Due south. Open up came out two weeks ago, a rematch with Zverev in the semifinal round loomed equally one of the biggest potential obstacles for Djokovic in his hunt for his sport's holy grail. Zverev, 24, stands 6 feet 6 inches alpine, floats around the tennis court with the grace of an N.B.A. shooting baby-sit, and can unleash 130 m.p.h serves and rocketing forehands at will when he is playing well.
For the first time since the tournament began, though, the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium was firmly in Djokovic's corner. He has long been far more respected than loved, simply a former girlfriend has accused Zverev of abusing her repeatedly in 2019. No charges have been filed and Zverev has denied the allegations, merely the off-the-court situation disqualified him from being embraced as an endearing underdog.
Chants of "Nole" — Djokovic's favored nickname — began early in the night and spurred him as he mounted his latest comeback.
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The match started as so many others have for Djokovic — with an early hiccup that made the mount he would take to climb that much steeper.
This slip occurred as Djokovic served with the score tied at four games each, a moment fraught with danger against someone with a serve as powerful as Zverev's.
Zverev played his most aggressive game of the young night, whipping forehands that forced Djokovic to stretch on his backhand. Zverev inched ahead, and so Djokovic double-faulted to give the large German a gamble to serve out the set. He did non waste it. Zverev won the opening gear up, just equally Djokovic's previous three opponents had.
But Djokovic is equally good at flipping the script as anyone who has always picked up a racket.
Berrettini has said Djokovic somehow gains energy from losing a ready, rather than becoming demoralized. Merely as he had in his last three matches, Djokovic raised the level of his game and surged to a second-set lead every bit Zverev began swatting untimely second serves into the net and getting lulled into the kinds of long rallies that are Djokovic'south strength. An hour-and-a-quarter after they began, Djokovic and Zverev were dorsum where they started, all tied up.
The turning point of the match came nearly an hour subsequently. With Zverev serving to stay in the gear up, Djokovic put on a brandish of tennis genius and played a game that may be the i historians point to as the moment the end line of the Grand Slam finally came into sight.
No one in Arthur Ashe Stadium knew better than Zverev that rallying with Djokovic would result in a slow and painful death. And yet, somehow, Djokovic managed to play a kind of tennis Tai chi, sustaining rallies of 18, 32 and 12 shots to get to triple set up point. Zverev survived rallies of 21 shots and an absurd 53 to relieve the commencement two.
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Then, on the 15th shot of the sixth point of the game, he could do no better than float a desperate lob to Djokovic, who was waiting at the internet to swat it down to accept the pb for the offset time all dark.
Zverev would not get quietly, though. He took a page out of the Djokovic playbook and somehow seemed to describe energy from falling behind. With Djokovic serving at 1-one, Zverev battled to plow the third game into a mini-marathon, earthworks in and clinching information technology with a slick forehand passing shot that Djokovic could non come close to touching. With Zverev's serve cranking up beyond the 130 m.p.h mark, Djokovic could not observe the opening to get even. Djokovic's chance at history was down to a single set.
Djokovic's run to the precipice of the Grand Slam has had its share of five-prepare escapes. In that location was an early-round escape in Australia in February, when he overcame a torn abdominal musculus and the American Taylor Fritz. In Paris, he came dorsum from two sets downward to Lorenzo Musetti midway through the tournament and confronting Stefanos Tsitsipas in the terminal.
Now came the adventure for one more than, and he did not waste whatever time jumping on information technology. Holding a 1-0 pb, Djokovic — and likely anybody else in the stadium — could sense Zverev growing shaky, the quondam Zverev returning. A double-fault gave Djokovic a sniff at a break at xv-30. A backhand mistake gave Djokovic the break betoken. And then one more rally went the wrong style for Zverev, and the fix became a seemingly inevitable series of Zverev misses, including one leaping overhead smashed wildly out of bounds.
I terminal backhand error for 1 terminal service suspension and after three hours and 35 minutes, Zverev was finally washed.
A match that could have gone either mode, Zverev called it. "It went his way," he said. "Very often it does."
And now the Grand Slam math becomes very, very simple: The only numbers that mattered were these — 27 matches downward, 1 to go.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/sports/tennis/djokovic-grand-slam.html
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