The US Open has started without its last two champions, Dominic Thiem (2020) and Rafael Nadal (2019), and without one of its most distinguished illustrious, Roger Federer, winner five times. All three have stopped to address their health issues, hoping to return to the top next season. They are different cases, of course: they are not the same age, nor are their injuries comparable. But all of them are an example of the physical demand required to stay at the top in world tennis. There are players who were never able to recover their essence, such as Andy Murray, which looped after the hard pulse with Novak Djokovic for number one in 2016. Neither Juan Martin del Potro, winner in New York in 2009, held back by an endless medical history.
We get old, me too, and we have to be selective, “says Djokovic before facing a double galactic challenge: completing the Grand slam in the same year, something that only Rod Laver did in 1969 in the It was Open, and add his 21st major, which would break the tie at the top of the Big Three. Nole really has not been as selective as he claims: he tried to round off the Golden Slam, the four majors added to the Olympic gold, and was shipwrecked at the Games, where he ended up unhinged during his match for the bronze against Pablo Carreño. The US Open starts with the question of which Djokovic we are going to see, if the one from Tokyo at the physical and mental limit, or that other with a sharp look capable of growing in the tournament and climbing the altar. During your summer break, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev have conquered the Toronto Masters 1,000 and Cincinnati. The two of them are the rivals Novak sees on the horizon, along with Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrei Rublev and Matteo berrettini. Only the NextGen can avoid the historical feat. But, so far, it has never stopped the current king.