Novak Djokovic was in a hole. Down two sets to none in the third round of the United States Open, he needed to find his stride in order to avoid getting eliminated from a Grand Slam tournament before the Round of 16 for the first time in 23 appearances. It wasn’t that he lacked confidence; for some reason, he was just, well, off — a step slow, hardly accurate with his groundstrokes, and unable to dictate rallies to his liking. Perhaps he just had trouble matching up with compatriot, friend, and frequent practice partner Laslo Djere; when they clashed at an ATP Tour 250 event in Serbia last year, he was two points from a loss and had to go the limit to triumph.
In any case, Djokovic wound up righting the ship after a trip to the locker room, a change of clothing, and, no doubt, a reminder to himself about his ultimate objective. In taking the next three sets, he allowed Laslo to win only five games all told. Not that the going was as easy as the numbers indicated. The rallies remained long, and he had to construct points in just about every instance. The flipside, of course, was that he could finally do it to his liking and, yes, to his benefit. In the third set, he claimed his first break of the set-to following a 27-stroke exchange. In the fourth, he won break point at 1-1 after a 10-minute struggle.
Djokovic earned victory after a good three and a half hours of toiling, but he looked fresh in the aftermath. Addressing what remained of the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd at 1:30 in the morning, he argued that the contest “was nerve-racking all the way until the last shot.” At the same time, he acknowledged that in crafting his eighth career comeback from a two-set deficit in a major tournament, he effectively sent the message “that I’m still able to play five sets deep at night.” Indeed, there can be no discounting his physical and mental sharpness even at 36.
It bears noting that Carlos Alcaraz, defending champion and top seed, entertained no thoughts of Djokovic succumbing to Djere. “I watched the first two sets, [and] then I had to go to sleep,” he disclosed “But when I [went] to bed, I was thinking, ‘Novak is going to come back, that’s for sure.’” Which is to say all and sundry to expect the two to set fireworks at Flushing Meadows by week’s end. At stake is more than just the US Open title; bragging rights are likewise on the line. And when it comes to the rivals, one is no less significant than the other.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
