Djokovic lets out emotions at Open
After staying reserved in early matches, he is animated as pursuit of Grand Slam persists
Novak Djokovic did not seek to keep his thoughts to himself on court Saturday, the way he mostly did through his first two U.S. Open matches. Instead, he let it all out, slapping his chest or sneering with a fist raised to celebrate success, pointing to his ear to ask the crowd for noise.
This was the Djokovic everyone is so accustomed to seeing — yes, winning on the Grand Slam stage, of course, as he always does in this magical season, but also animated and into it, encouraging the spectators to join him for the ride on his path toward tennis history.
Taking another step in his bid to complete the first calendar-year Slam by a man in more than a half-century, Djokovic moved into the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the 14th consecutive appearance, coming back to beat Kei Nishikori 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
“I don’t plan to have those kind of emotional moments on the court, whether good or bad. It just happens,” Djokovic said. “In the heat of the battle, when you feel like the moment is very important … you just want to get those things out of yourself, out of your system — try to, I guess, ride on that energy wave that you create, whether it’s with yourself, whether it’s with the crowd.”
So the No. 1-seeded Djokovic managed to avoid the rash of upsets that have hit the tournament, but the top-seeded woman, Ash Barty, did not. A day after defending champion Naomi Osaka and two of the top five men, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev were beaten, Barty blew a big lead in the final set and lost to 43rdranked Shelby Rogers of the U.S. 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (5) on Saturday night.
Rogers was a quarterfinalist in New
York a year ago, while Barty owns titles from the French Open in 2019 and Wimbledon this July but never has been past the fourth round at Flushing Meadows.
Coming into this match, Barty was 5-0 against Rogers and then went up two breaks at 5-2 in the third set. Rogers’ mindset at that point? “Can’t get any worse. You’ve lost to her every time,” said Rogers, who plays 18year-old Emma Raducanu of Britain on Monday. “Try something different.”
Djokovic, a 34-year-old from Serbia, is now 24-0 in the sport’s four most important events this season, having won the Australian Open in February, the French Open in June and Wimbledon in July. The last man to go 4-for-4 at the majors was Rod Laver in 1969; Steffi Graf was the last woman, in 1988.
Win four more matches next week, and Djokovic also would earn his 21st career Slam trophy, breaking the men’s mark he currently shares with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
“I would not be honest fully if I told you I don’t think or I don’t believe or I don’t visualize that I can win every single Grand Slam that I play in,” Djokovic said. “I’m not surprised when I win Slams and big tournaments because that’s always a goal.”
It was in the fourth round last year that Djokovic’s U.S. Open ended, defaulted late in the first set for hitting a ball after ceding a game and inadvertently hitting a line judge in the throat.
Now he’ll play wild-card entry Jenson Brooksby, who beat No. 21 Aslan Karatsev in five sets to become, at 20, the youngest American man in the round of 16 at the U.S. Open since Andy Roddick (2002).
Other players advancing included Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini and No. 13 Jannik Sinner along with 22ndseeded American Reilly Opelka and South African Lloyd. In women’s action, Olympic women’s gold medalist Belinda Bencic, 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu, 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek and two-time major finalist Karolina Pliskova reached the fourth round.