For a lot of the final decade and a half, Novak Djokovic has entered Grand Slam fortnights with the expectation of returning with silverware.
Even throughout his lean patch that has now lasted eight Majors and two years, the Serb has been anticipated to win a history-making, record-extending twenty fifth Main.
However even the everlasting Djokovic followers would have had their issues for the 38-year-old as he arrived in New York in a yr the place he has reached the semifinals in every of the three Majors to date, but additionally proved to be distinctly third-best, roundly humbled on the massive stage by the youthful era and compelled to take care of the fact of an ageing physique.
The search for No. 25 has gone from a ‘when’ to an ‘if’.
“I don’t know. I don’t have any damage or something. I simply struggled so much to remain in lengthy exchanges and recuperate after factors,” he mentioned after beating promising American teenager Learner Tien in straight units in his event opener.
The outlook was not too optimistic after his second-round win both.
“Not that nice, to be sincere,” Djokovic mentioned about his tennis after preventing off a spirited problem from American qualifier Zachary Svajda for a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 win on Wednesday. “I used to be probably not pleased with my tennis within the first a part of the match.”
Story continues under this advert
After taking up two new challengers, up subsequent is a well-recognized foe. Djokovic will tackle Cameron Norrie within the third spherical late on Friday, a match-up that he has aced, beating the left-handed Briton in every of their final six contests, together with on the French Open earlier this yr. However proper now, Djokovic’s points are on his personal aspect of the online.
The Serb went Main-less in 2024 however received the prized Olympic gold, after which he started looking for the sting to return to the summit of males’s tennis. His greatest tennis has not solely eluded him; it has proven up in massive moments, particularly evident throughout two wonderful quarterfinal victories in Melbourne and Paris – over Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev respectively.
However Djokovic is having to return to phrases with simply how bodily draining it’s to win seven best-of-five-sets matches in two weeks at his age. He retired because of damage from the semifinals on the Australian Open and confronted issues at Wimbledon too. He was additionally proven his place by Jannik Sinner, who delivered two clinics towards him of their semifinals at Roland Garros and SW19.
Missing edge
Whereas the straight-sets scoreline was harsh on the Serb in Paris, the place Sinner needed to produce his greatest to play by means of him, the Italian completely eviscerated him at Wimbledon: a mixture of Djokovic’s bodily and psychological fatigue and Sinner’s relentless, brutal ball-striking. After the match, the Serb made no excuses, casting doubt over whether or not he would ever be capable to attain the identical heights at Main stage once more.
Story continues under this advert
And so he arrived in New York, six weeks later with out a single match below his belt – at 38, he prefers to take extra breaks, spend some household time, and never interact with the bloated tennis calendar he disapproves of – chasing some sort of spark.
In his dour opening matches at Flushing Meadows, Djokovic didn’t discover it, usually making a flurry of errors, trying sluggish, and doubling up for breath after long-ish rallies. Within the first spherical, he was pushed far sufficient, particularly within the 80-minute second set, and seemed decisively off-colour. The sport wouldn’t enhance within the second match, with Svajda making the most of his lapses in a approach Tien couldn’t.
The American went toe-to-toe with Djokovic from the baseline and outplayed him for the primary half of the match, even taking the primary set (through which Djokovic made 14 unforced errors) to a tie-breaker and profitable it. He led by a break within the third set too, however Djokovic improved incrementally, and Svajda himself confronted a left leg damage, with out which he was prone to make way more of a match of it. Djokovic left with a win however remained sad.
The Serb’s drawback is two-fold. As an alternative of getting evident weapons, he’s a grasp at profitable within the margins, by means of superior decision-making, shot choice, rally tolerance and serving consistency. That is how he wins even when he’s not at his greatest. However when the sharpness evades him – by means of bodily fatigue, an absence of psychological motivation or a mixture of all components – the cracks begin to seem.
Story continues under this advert
The place he goes from here’s a thriller. He’ll proceed to notch wins, ugly in the event that they should be, however on the enterprise finish of the Majors, towards opponents who’re proving to be well worth the hype, he might want to hit high gear. Time is operating out for him to seek out it.