He took a page out of the Djokovic playbook and somehow seemed to draw energy from falling behind. Then, on the 15th shot of the sixth point of the game, he could do no better than float a desperate lob to Djokovic, who was waiting at the net to swat it down to take the lead for the first time all night. Zverev survived rallies of 21 shots and an absurd 53 to save the first two. And yet, somehow, Djokovic managed to play a kind of tennis Tai chi, sustaining rallies of 18, 32 and 12 shots to get to triple set point. No one in Arthur Ashe Stadium knew better than Zverev that rallying with Djokovic would result in a slow and painful death. With Zverev serving to stay in the set, Djokovic put on a display of tennis genius and played a game that may be the one historians point to as the moment the finish line of the Grand Slam finally came into sight. The turning point of the match came nearly an hour later. An hour-and-a-quarter after they began, Djokovic and Zverev were back where they started, all tied up. Just as he had in his last three matches, Djokovic raised the level of his game and surged to a second-set lead as Zverev began swatting untimely second serves into the net and getting lulled into the kinds of long rallies that are Djokovic’s strength. shooting guard, and can unleash 130 m.p.h serves and rocketing forehands at will when he is playing well.īut Djokovic is as good at flipping the script as anyone who has ever picked up a racket.īerrettini has said Djokovic somehow gains energy from losing a set, rather than becoming demoralized. Zverev, 24, stands 6 feet 6 inches tall, floats around the tennis court with the grace of an N.B.A. Open came out two weeks ago, a rematch with Zverev in the semifinal round loomed as one of the biggest potential obstacles for Djokovic in his hunt for his sport’s holy grail. At the Tokyo Olympics, Zverev roared back from a set and a service break down to overwhelm Djokovic in a semifinal. That version of Zverev has disappeared in recent months, especially against Djokovic. Open final last year, Zverev blew a two-set lead, and even served for the championship, only to lose to Dominic Thiem in a tiebreaker at the end of a fifth set that descended into a parade of slices, errors and double faults.
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But I have one more to go.”ĭjokovic went into Friday night’s battle with the fourth-seeded Zverev after playing what he said were the three best sets of the tournament in a quarterfinal defeat of Matteo Berrettini: a four-set, come-from-behind win over a younger, bigger and more powerful opponent.ĭjokovic, 34, was going to need a repeat performance against Zverev, a so-called next generation star who has figured out in the last year how to keep his cool in the biggest moments. The motivation is there, without a doubt. “The job is not done,” Djokovic said just past midnight Saturday morning. It is the thing that would make Djokovic the biggest of the Big Three forever. At this point, though, it is nearly impossible to believe that Federer and Nadal, who are battling age and injury, can win a calendar-year Grand Slam. But that race may take a few more years to reach its conclusion. He is tied with his biggest rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, in the race for the most career Grand Slam titles with 20, a competition that Djokovic is determined to win so he can cement his legacy as the greatest player ever. On Sunday, Djokovic will take on Medvedev and play for history. Fernandez, who turned 19 this week and is ranked 73rd, was until a few days ago known as little more than a scrappy, undersized battler whose future was anyone’s guess. Raducanu, 18 and ranked 150th in the world, was barely known two weeks ago and now is the first player to reach a Grand Slam final after making it into the main draw through the qualifying tournament.