Novak Djokovic Sees US Open as Best Chance
Novak Djokovic, 39, sees the US Open as his best shot at a 25th Grand Slam title, as Sinner and Alcaraz are absent or undercooked.
Novak Djokovic, 39, believes the US Open offers his best chance to win a 25th Grand Slam title, with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz absent or undercooked.
Djokovic’s documentary and mindset
The timing of Djokovic’s documentary The Wolf in Winter is conspicuous, arriving ahead of the final Grand Slam of the season in New York, starting on Sunday. The film, released last week as “Prime Video Sports Presents” and “A Film By Jason Hehir”, features clips of Djokovic howling into the distance, a visual echo of his intense competitive spirit.
Draw and potential opponents
The US Open marks three years since Djokovic’s last major triumph, in a 2023 campaign where he won three of the big four and only missed out on a historic calendar Grand Slam in a final-set defeat to Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon. It is his 12th Grand Slam chasing that elusive No 25.
The draw is tough: he has former top-30 player Mariano Navone in round one before a potential match-up against Stan Wawrinka (whom he lost to in the final in New York 10 years ago) or Matteo Berrettini in round two. It could be all over for the fourth seed before it even really gets going.
Injury concerns and field composition
Sinner announced his withdrawal last week owing to a knee problem, with the Italian not hitting a ball in anger on the match court since triumphing at SW19 at the start of July. Defending champion Alcaraz, meanwhile, is making his return after four months out with a wrist injury. No warm-ups, no match practice, ahead of potentially a fortnight in the heat and humidity of best-of-five set tennis at Flushing Meadows.
Historical context and age factor
In the last 11 Grand Slams, seven of Djokovic’s defeats have come against the big two. To his immense credit, and a tribute to his otherworldly excellence in the athleticism department, the 39-year-old has reached the last four of nine of those 11 events. His five-hour-plus triumph over Auger-Aliassime, 13 years his junior, at Wimbledon last month speaks to Djokovic’s unrelenting dedication off-court.
Motivation and legacy
An insight into his mentality, though, was again depicted in his documentary. “Why would I retire when I keep proving myself that I can win?” he noted, in and around a segment focused on his Olympic gold medal victory at the 2024 Games in Paris; the final piece to his mind-blowing tennis jigsaw. As his tennis manager Carlos Gomez-Herrera stated: “Novak is Novak when the moment matters.”
He has never played in fewer tournaments leading up to the final major of the year: only six all season. He most recently lost in his first match in Cincinnati to world No 42 Thiago Tirante. By all accounts, he has looked sluggish in pre-tournament practice, opting to stop when broken twice by world No 33 Zizou Bergs in a practice set.
Yet, Djokovic is motivated by something deeper within. “There is a word in Serbian called inat,” Djokovic explains in The Wolf in Winter. “When people doubt you, when everyone is basically against you, that’s when you use that inat, that force of stubbornness to prove everybody wrong.” You could say that sense of inat is the most innate element in the psyche of Djokovic.
And it is why, despite the form book and the historical statistics, you can never write him off. In fact, his time could well be now.
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Source: The Independent