Novak Djokovic wins US Open and 24th Grand Slam title

Novak Djokovic has won a Grand Slam singles title in so many different ways that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of them all.

Djokovic, a Serbian, further cemented his reputation as the greatest player of the modern era with a clinical straight-sets victory over Russia’s Daniil Medvedev on Sunday. Gliding across the court and swinging his racket with an ease and grace that top players a decade younger, and even more junior, can usually only dream of, Djokovic took advantage of a flat start from Medvedev, then outlasted his friend in an epic second set and eventually defeated his Monte Carlo neighbor, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3.

He did it on an Arthur Ashe Stadium court where he’d spent most of his career playing the villain in matches against underdogs or old favorites like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. That wasn’t the case on Sunday. The crowd of nearly 24,000 greeted him with a roar, then showered him with the biggest roar of all when Medvedev slammed a shot into the net to give Djokovic a title that’s surprisingly hard to win for the best hard-court player in the history of the sport.

“This means the world to me,” he told the crowd just before lifting the trophy for the fourth time in his career.

His transformation from foil to protagonist had begun two years earlier, toward the end of a very different final against the same opponent. On that day, Djokovic walked onto the court to become the first man in more than 50 years to win all four Grand Slam tournament titles in a calendar year.

Medvedev’s straight-set upset was all but sealed that day when Djokovic was uncharacteristically flat, but a stadium full to witness history enveloped Djokovic in a kind of love he had never felt in New York before. He sobbed in his seat as it washed over him before the final match.

Djokovic missed last year’s US Open due to a federal government rule that banned foreign visitors who weren’t vaccinated against Covid-19 from entering the country. He set foot on American soil for the first time in nearly two years in mid-August to play the Western & Southern Open near Cincinnati. He quickly realized that the love he felt during the 2021 US Open final hadn’t faded.

Djokovic needed all that support on Sunday when Medvedev, seemingly on cruise control midway through the second set, relapsed into form. After a set and a half of errors, the Russian with arms like an octopus and legs like a gazelle cleared the mistakes from his game, set up his serve and did that very effective imitation of a backboard that had previously propelled him to the top of the sport.

Points lasting more than 20 shots had become routine in a match with its share of 30-shot rallies, and suddenly Djokovic’s legs started to go, like a boxer shocked by a shot to the jaw. He leaned on his racket between points, gasping for breath. He rubbed his head with an ice pack between games.

“I lost air so much,” he said. “I can’t remember ever being so exhausted after rallies.”

He served to stay in the second set at 5-6, stretching his legs before throwing balls into the air, panting as he ran for shots, and saved set point with two soft volleys.

“He was tired,” Medvedev said. “I was all over him.”

They went to a deciding tiebreaker, and even that, like so many points in this video game of a match, went back and forth. Medvedev came within two points of a draw, winning a lung-searing drop-shot exchange. But then, as he had done so many times before, Djokovic played three straight clear points.

When Medvedev hit a backhand into the net 104 minutes into the set, Djokovic had taken a two-set lead, a lead he would relinquish only once in his career, 13 years ago, before blossoming into the near-invincible player he would become.

He slowly strolled to his seat, grabbed his bag and walked off the court to visit the toilet. Medvedev took off his shirt and called for a trainer, who massaged his shoulders, but after what he had endured for the past hour and a half, a brain massage was what he really needed.

When he returned to the court, Djokovic was floating again, the adrenaline of another championship and record in sight giving him a newfound spring in his step. He flew to the net, taking advantage of an opponent so deep in the court that it often looked as if he was about to hit the back wall with his backswing. No one was going to take away Djokovic’s sweet return to America this time around.

It seems like every time he plays in a tournament these days, he sets a record in men’s tennis, and usually he beats one of his own. Djokovic started the year in Melbourne, where he won a record 10th Australian Open title. On Sunday, he won his 24th Grand Slam singles title, breaking the men’s record of 23 he set at the French Open in June.

On Friday he played in a record 47th Grand Slam semifinal, one more than Federer. Three weeks ago he won a record 39th title at a Masters 1000 tournament, the events just below the level of the Grand Slams. On Sunday he played in his 36th Grand Slam final.

His performance at the US Open guaranteed, before he even took the court for his final matches, that he would wake up Monday morning as the world No. 1, reclaiming the top spot from Carlos Alcaraz, the 20-year-old Spanish sensation. That would be his 390th week at the top of the sport. He already held that record.

“What are you still doing here,” the 27-year-old Medvedev said to the 36-year-old Djokovic, who has prevented him from winning titles since he first broke through at the highest level of tennis six years ago.

Djokovic dried himself in a corner of the court before serving for match point, took one last breath, looked out at the fans in the front rows and nodded his head, his eyes wide. Moments later, he knelt on the court, his shoulders shaking as tears flowed again. When he stood, he walked to the stands and scooped up his daughter, Tara, who is 6 and can barely sit through a tennis match. She often colors in books on the stadium floor while her father plays.

“Tennis isn’t really her thing,” he said earlier this year with a grin and a questioning look.

It is now. She watched from the sidelines on Sunday and Djokovic said that whenever he needed a lift, he would look at her and see her smiling and pumping her fist in the air, and he believed that everything would be OK.

Then came the embrace with the rest of his family in the stands. When he returned to the court, he changed out of his sweaty gear and into a jersey with a photo of him and Kobe Bryant, his sports hero, friend and sometimes mentor, whose number was 24 when he retired from the NBA. That number was on the back of Djokovic’s jersey.

“It’s a shame about Wimbledon, a few points on both sides,” said his coach, Goran Ivanisevic, who lamented Djokovic’s only loss in 28 Grand Slam matches this year, a five-set defeat to Alcaraz in July. Ivanisevic said he and Djokovic never spoke about the loss after that day. “That’s what makes him so great.”

Days before this tournament, Djokovic thought back to the heartbreaking but heartwarming day two years ago, when Medvedev held him one match away from perhaps the ultimate tennis achievement. He could still feel the warmth of the New York crowd that had finally embraced him.

“They love sports and they love when they experience something special,” he said. “They really supported me and wanted me to win and make history.”

In retrospect, he said, he collapsed under the burden of it, as he rarely did.

This time, Djokovic forbade his family to say anything about the history. He wanted to keep the match as simple and clear as possible.

New York fans had to wait two years to see it, but on Sunday it finally happened. There’s a good chance they’ll see it again.