The history of the Grand Slams remains the same. Novak Djokovic could have changed her forever in New York yesterday, and there is still time, but it will have to be elsewhere later. Because the Serbian was completely shipwrecked against Daniil Medvedev in the final of the US Open: 6-4, 6-4 and 6-4 in two hours and 15 minutes.
No one expected such an impressive corrective from the 25-year-old Muscovite to the number one, 34, that he didn’t want to hear about the record of 21 Grand Slam titles that finally got away from him. The triple tie at 20 with Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer will remain at least until next January in Australia. What Djokovic may never be able to do, although you never know, is to win all four majors in the same year, as Rod Laver did for the last time (1969) in men’s tennis, who witnessed the Balkan’s historic slip in Arthur Ashe .
Djokovic crashed on the largest stage in the world, before 23,771 spectators, in front of actors, athletes and other celebrities who were left without a game, because at no time did he know how to direct it or maintain its legendary order before an anarchic Medvedev, who had nothing There was much to lose and much to gain in his second appearance in the game for the title of the American major, after the one in which he took Rafa Nadal to the limit of the fifth set and lost. In February he lost to Djokovic in three sets in the Melbourne final and took away a lesson well learned.
With his heterodox and peculiar style, as well as effective, he overflowed that of Belgrade from minute one, with a he wants as soon as he started. In the second quarter, Daniil escaped from a 0-40 and later from two advantages of his rival to the rest, before delivering another blow in the form of a break and holding the advantage to make it 2-0. Tremendous. The normal thing would have been for Djokovic to react and for Medvedev to feel nervous. But he is a man of ice, who neither cries in defeats, nor smiles too much in victories, who hardly celebrates. The third set opened it 4-0. And only doubts entered him when he served to win with 5-2. He lost his service for the first time and felt a certain vertigo at the approach of his greatest success.
Tears and emotion
Overwhelmed by the significance of the event and by the tension, Djokovic cried on his bench after getting that only break. Then he got back on track and tried to delay the inevitable. Part of the public booed Medvedev in full service because they wanted more game. Ugly gesture. But the Russian did not shrink and won the US Open, the most unpredictable Grand Slam, which again, and for six years, Novak resists. “My heart is filled with joy for how you have made me feel, it has never happened to me here. I’ll see you soon, ”he said through tears. His executioner encouraged him: “You are the best in history.” Although by numbers, it is not yet.
Results, table and schedules.