Novak Djokovic was eliminated this Friday in the third round of the US Opensaid that his level of tennis at this New York ‘major’ was the worst he can remember in his legendary and brilliant career.
“Honestly, with the the way i felt and the way I played from the beginning of this tournament, reaching the third round is a success. I mean, I played some of the worst tennis I’ve ever played.“As for serve, the worst by far,” he said in a press conference.
“If you play on a fast surface like this without the serve and without the ability to win ‘free points’, with a very low percentage of first serves and many double faults, you can’t win. Especially against players who are in form like Alexei Popyrin, who was serving very well and putting a lot of pressure on my serve. Yes, it was a terrible match for me.“, he added.
Just one day after the removal of Carlos Alcarazhe US Open suffered another shock this Friday with the defeat of Djokovicknocked out in the third round by the Australian Alexei Popyrin by 6-4, 6-4, 2-6 and 6-4 in three hours and 19 minutes.
The current champion of the New York ‘big one’ will finish A year without winning a Grand Slam for the first time since 2017. He also failed to achieve his title 25 of a ‘big’ to break the tie with Margaret Court (24) as the tennis player with the most of these trophies in history.
Djokovic I had just won gold in Paris 2024, but in the Big Apple He landed with minimal energy and without having participated in any of the hard court tournaments on the North American tour. “I spent a lot of energy winning the gold and I arrived in New York not feeling mentally or physically fresh,” he admitted.
“As is the US Openof one opportunity and gave my best. I mean, I had no physical problems“I just didn’t have any gas and you could see that by the way I played,” he added.
“I guess you could argue that it was because of the Olympics but I don’t know. I don’t want to analyze that right now.“I was just looking to improve my game here day by day but it didn’t happen,” he said.
Finally, Djokovic He stressed that the race to win this edition of the US Open is very open after its elimination and the equally shocking one of Alcaraz.
“The picture is opening up. Obviously Sinner is the main favorite but then there are also Tiafoe y Fritz as American favorites. Zverev... You have guys playing well. And Rublev y Dimitrov in this part of the draw. Anyone can win. It will be interesting to see who wins the title in the end,” he concluded.
2024-08-31 08:44:04