Novak Djokovic won the US Open in New York on Sunday evening local time. In a grueling final under the closed roof of the Arthur Ashe Stadium, the 36-year-old Serbian was too strong for the Russian Daniil Medvedev in three sets: 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) and 6-3.
It is the fourth time that Djokovic has won the US Open and his 24th Grand Slam victory in total. With that number of Grand Slam titles, he is on par with Australia’s Margaret Court, who won most of her victories before the introduction of professional tennis. He was already the record holder among the men.
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“That obviously means a lot to me,” Djokovic said after the final. “When I started playing tennis, I never thought I would be here with 24 Grand Slam titles, but in recent years I felt like there was an opportunity to make history and why not take it?”
He dedicated the title to American basketball legend Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter accident in 2020.
The end of the second set is decisive
Djokovic wasted no time at the start of the match and immediately broke Medvedev in his first service game. After that he continued to play with concentration and won the first set quite easily.
The extremely exciting end of the second set, which lasted no less than an hour and forty-five minutes, ultimately proved decisive. After a number of long and spectacular games with constantly changing opportunities, a tie-break followed in which Medvedev was given a set point, but which Djokovic ultimately won. Medvedev then underwent injury treatment.
In the third set the Russian tried to fight back into the match and there were breaks on both sides, but Djokovic again proved to be too strong.
Fourth Grand Slam final
It was Djokovic’s fourth Grand Slam final this year. He also won the Australian Open and Roland Garros this season, but lost the final at Wimbledon against Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz.
Sunday evening’s match was a repeat of the US Open final from two years ago. It was then surprisingly won by Medvedev. Last year, Djokovic did not participate in New York because he did not want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
In the women’s race, 19-year-old American Coco Gauff won the title on Saturday.