In the first round of the US Open, Novak Djokovic battled past American teenager Learner Tien 6-1, 7-6 (3), 6-2, in his most recent attempt to win the record 25th major title.
The 38-year-old Serb battled through physical issues on Sunday to win his 80th match at Arthur Ashe Stadium despite losing in his first singles match since reaching the Wimbledon semifinals last month.
Djokovic became the first player to win 75 Grand Slam first-round matches consecutively, with 55 of those victories coming in straight sets, since the sport turned professional in 1968.
Djokovic, who appeared to be struggling with an injury midway through the match, described it as “a strange kind of match.”
The first set, which was 20 minutes long, followed by the second set, which was 20 minutes long, quite the opposite set. In the second set, I needed to stay on my toes and win the tie-break.
I started feeling better right away after that. It’s a great way to kick off this year’s campaign, but I can always do better.
The seventh seed fought back from a time violation to reclaim the contest’s opening set in double-quick time, and a heated discussion with the chair umpire followed shortly after.
The 19-year-old Tien had chances to level things up in the second set of a difficult match but fell apart in the tie-break, which was almost impossible for him to do in order to hand Djokovic his first Grand Slam defeat since the 2006 Australian Open.
Djokovic used heavy groundstrokes from the baseline to take the third set to take a 3-1 lead. The four-time champion of New York tied the game with American Zachary Svajda in the end.
The good thing is that I only have two days off. It raises a small issue. I’m not hurt or anything. “I just struggled to stay in the long exchanges and recover after the points,” Djokovic said.
Since the US Open in 2023, Djokovic hasn’t won a Grand Slam.
Source: Aljazeera
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