Djokovic survives heavy fall to seal victory and open up route to the final
Scare for Serbian on way to routine straight-sets progress Relaxed Gauff eases through in battle of the teenagers
Novak Djokovic suffered a heavy fall in his otherwise routine win over Spanish No5 Bernabe Zapata Miralles. Having dived like a goalkeeper to reach a wide ball, he spent a worrying moment curled up in a foetal position with his forehead pressed to the court.
Djokovic soon hopped up again and waved away any concern. But he would be wise not to throw himself around these hard courts again in such a Boris Becker-esque manner.
Given the dominance of his 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Zapata Miralles, Djokovic really did not need to scramble for points. Furthermore, it is looking increasingly as if an accident or injury is the only thing that could prevent him from reaching the final here.
Other results around Flushing Meadows have left the bottom half of the draw without any obvious challengers. The three top-10 seeds remaining are Casper Ruud (5), Taylor Fritz (9) and Frances Tiafoe (10). Their collective head-to-head record against Djokovic? Zero wins from 14 attempts.
Even before the first ball was hit on Monday, Djokovic already looked like he had the easier half. His new rival Carlos Alcaraz – who started the week as world No1 – could well end up playing both Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev just to reach the final.
This is a tall order. Alcaraz was taken to the brink last year by Sinner, in a spectacular five-setter that finished at 2.50am and went down as arguably the match of the season. Admittedly, he has had the wood over Medvedev in their last couple of meetings, but Medvedev is still a former champion here.
As for Djokovic, his draw had originally promised meetings with Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas, two men who have enjoyed at least a taste of success against him.
But Rune fell at the first hurdle on Monday, and Tsitsipas followed him out of the tournament yesterday – a victim of the exciting young Swiss lefthander Dominic Stricker.
A notorious perfectionist, Djokovic was less than satisfied with his performance against Zapata Miralles, saying that he had started too slowly for his liking. Asked by on-court interviewer Rennae Stubbs to explain what goes through his head in that situation, Djokovic joked that his first thought was, “Do I need this?” More seriously, he continued: “That’s why we train several hours a day in humid and hot conditions, trying to get ready for anything that can potentially await you on the court. Once you are in the tournament, you need to be ready. Even if you think you are not, you have to try to tell yourself that you are, and keep on trying to improve.”
Earlier, the leading American hope Coco Gauff had come through the battle of the teenagers against 16-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva. It is easy to forget that Gauff is still only 19, given that she made her breakthrough at Wimbledon four years ago. But her extra experience and nous meant that she never appeared to be in any trouble yesterday.
Gauff is showing a more relaxed side of herself at this tournament. After completing her 6-3, 6-2 win in just 76 minutes, she said that she was beginning to realise that tennis is not a life-and-death issue. Some of that understanding, she added, had come from watching Alcaraz smile his way through a bumpy few matches in Cincinnati a fortnight ago. “Carlos in Cincinnati, he was losing a set every match pretty much,” Gauff said. “He wasn’t playing his best. He was still smiling against Hubi Hurkacz when he was down a set and a break; down match points. I was like, ‘If he can smile and he’s No1 in the world and he has all this pressure, then I can do it in situations where I’m facing Iga [Swiatek] or [Aryna] Sabalenka’.”