Goodbye Grand Slam, Novak Djokovic’s tears

There was half Hollywood in the stands. She had bought the ticket for a historical big movie with a happy ending, instead she found herself in front of a drama of those in which in the end you see the humanity of the characters. The human in question is Novak Djokovic who was here for the evening of life. Winning this match, the US Open final, meant taking home the Grand Slam, all four major tournaments in the same year. The last one to succeed had been Rod Laver, second in history and the only one capable of doing it twice, but we are talking about the sixties, a geological era ago in tennis.

And there was also him, Laver, in the stands, among the various Brad Pitt and Bradley Cooper, Lenoardo di Caprio and Ben Stiller, Spike Lee and Kate Hudson. All to see that robot that has often appeared the Serbian become a little more human. The car this time was Daniil Medvedev. The Russian, number two in the world, did not miss a ball, while Djokovic managed to break a racket between fouls and tension.

Nole is not used to playing with the public in favor. He is exalted when the arena is against; every game for him is a battle. Instead, they were all for him in Flushing Meadows. “Tonight, even if I didn’t win, I’m a happy man because you made me feel special”he said after the game. It was an evening of tears. For Djokovic a dream that is difficult to repeat has shattered. If certainly another Slam tournament is within his reach and he can then try to exceed 20 where he is paired with Federer and Nadal. On the other hand, it seems almost impossible that he will win them all back in the same season.

It is an even tougher defeat than the one against the Olympics in the semifinals Zverev which took away the possibility of the Golden Slam, adding Olympic gold, to the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon in anticipation of the US Open. He lost in three sets (6-4 6-4 6-4), a ghost of himself. As Zverev had almost apologized to him in Tokyo, so Medvedev did in New York: “For me you are the best ever.”

All 20 thousand of Arthur Ashe wanted to applaud the best ever to enter the legend. It was not so. They may have seen the most terrible of his defeats, but certainly Nole, too often third among Federer and Nadal, is ready for other battles.


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