Djokovic at the US Open: what can prevent the Serb from winning the 24th TBSH of his career

Athletistic/Tennis. Over the past few years, Novak Djokovic has shown a penchant for flashy performances in major tournaments, especially on hard courts.

The Serbian’s game seems better suited to the hard court than any other. He can take heavy blows from his opponents and redirect them, and Novak’s flexibility allows him to keep his balance even when on the move.

But these technical characteristics are only a small part of what makes Djokovic great. The Serb has an incredible mentality, he wants to win at all costs.

Djokovic is by definition the favorite, even Carlos Alcaraz can’t get rid of him on his own just yet, as the incredible final in Cincinnati a week ago showed. But Novak may not win his fourth US Open this year. What can get in the way?

Humidity

At the Cincinnati Open last week, Novak Djokovic suffered from extreme humidity in the first set of his championship bout against Alcaraz. The humidity and the summer heat hampered the Serbian who lost the first set 7-5.

However, thanks to his younger opponent losing concentration in the second set, Djokovic was able to take control of the match and ultimately win in three tough sets.

Humidity has always been one of the 36-year-old Serb’s sworn enemies. At the 2018 New York Grand Slam, Djokovic went so far as to demand air conditioning on the courts to help him deal with the sweltering humidity that caused him to sweat profusely during matches.

At one point during the 2018 US Open quarter-final against John Millman, Djokovic looked devoid of all his vitality.

But the 23-time TBSH winner didn’t give up and then experienced cooler conditions in the semis and finals to claim his third US Open title.

Heavy balls and high impact surfaces.

There’s a reason Novak Djokovic has won far more Australian Open titles than the US Open.

The Melbourne surface does not allow the ball to bounce too high thanks to the GreenSet Cushion system, which neutralizes the impact of the ball loaded with topspins on the surface.

However, the surface used at the US Open is completely different. The ball tends to bounce a bit higher than in Melbourne due to the different hard court material.

This disrupts the trajectory of Djokovic’s racquet, which reduces his accuracy against better players.

Additionally, it emerged last year that the men’s US Open was using a heavy-type Wilson ball, causing players to expend more energy when hitting.

Djokovic, on the other hand, is struggling to find his own rhythm in the game as he gets older due to numerous issues. His elbow and shoulder aren’t as strong as they used to be due to injuries.

Djokovic’s lack of preparation due to the light net

Sometimes during his career, Novak Djokovic had such easy times in elite tournaments that when he got to the final he wasn’t in a good enough rhythm because he didn’t need to improve. his play in previous matches.

The Serb seems to have had this problem at Wimbledon this year, where he lost in the final to Alcaraz. The final in Cincinnati didn’t go as planned either, it took a long time for Djokovic to recover.

Another minor concern for Djokovic fans could be that all of his main rivals – Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Yannick Sinner – have reached the first half of the men’s singles.

In the past, Novak has won spectacular victories at TBSH, beating the best players during the tournament. Conversely, when the matches were easy for him – like at the 2016 US Open, where three of his opponents had to drop out with injuries – he failed to refine his game and his mentality for the final. Now, Holger Rune, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Kasper Ruud are no longer part of Djokovic’s grid. In the 1/8 finals he will meet the Croatian Borna Goyo, in the quarter-finals he will probably face Taylor Fritz, then Francis Tiafoe or Ben Shelton. The second half of the table has more status, none of the best players have been eliminated there yet.

This is, however, a very minor issue, as tennis matches are usually decided not on the basis of relatively arbitrary reasoning, but on the basis of actual skill.

Opponents capable of hitting deep and flat

Novak Djokovic is a tenacious lineman with perhaps the best defensive skills in tennis history. He likes to change the direction of his shots with his wrist from the forehand while standing on the back line. The 36-year-old also hits very deep from the ground, not giving his opponents enough time to attack him.

That being said, Djokovic has struggled with his forehand at times in recent years. He can’t land hard shots from the back line, and sometimes his cross shots don’t have enough depth.

To take advantage of this disadvantage, his opponents do not necessarily need to land powerful ground strikes, but rather deep and penetrating strikes.

In the past, Medvedev has managed to harass Djokovic with his metronomic playing style, even. Novak can play him in the final.

In fact, there are very few players in the Serbian’s grid who play the perfect style of tennis to beat him. Already eliminated Stefanos Tsitsipas, Holger Rune and Kasper Ruud like to play with a lot of spin on their shots and stylistically suit Djokovic.

Czech Jiri Vesely could get caught by Djokovic in the fourth round, he is 2-0 against Novak (he beat him in Monte Carlo in 2016 and in Dubai in 2022), plays very aggressive and flat , which harms the Serbian. But Vesely only lost Goyo in the third round. In this regard, he was lucky.

Carlos Alcaraz and the American public

In this year’s Wimbledon final against Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic suffered a lot from nervousness and there were several awkward moments when he couldn’t hold the ball.

The Serbian’s negligence cost him the second set, after which the English crowd began to cheer on the opponent.

Their wild reaction seemed to slightly offend the Serb. In the fifth set, when Alcaraz took the lead, the Serb was once again excited about the crowd’s reaction and the situation he was in.

These circumstances pushed him to destroy racketeering. He ended up losing the match in five sets.

The American crowd is even more hostile than the English crowd. And Djokovic himself faced her in the 2015 US Open final against Federer.

The vast majority of that day was devoted to Serbs. But he pulled away from the noise and delivered one of the best games of his career.

It’s been 8 years since that day and his thirst for victory is perhaps a little less than in the past. Also, last year New York audiences basically embraced Alcaraz because of his interesting style of play.

So if Alcaraz manage to win their first six matches, they have a real chance of upsetting the 23-time TBS winner again, this time in the United States.

Vyacheslav Gorbachev/Athletistic