Novak Djokovic solves the fast track, firm and late night, when the New York clock is already close to one in the morning. The US Open takes off and the Serbian hits at the first exchange, because the calculator says that the victory against the Frenchman Alexandre Müller in the premiere (6-0, 6-2 and 6-3, in 1h 35m) automatically returns the number one that Carlos Alcaraz had defended since June 26. The Serbian, then, begins this last approach to the tournament strong, which he had not set foot in for two years; then, Daniil Medvedev surpassed him in the final and deprived him of completing his long-awaited Grand Slam.
Nole wants revenge and once again rule the night at Flushing Meadows, where he last triumphed in 2018. So he starts with the turbo, showing off muscle – “I played very well, from start to finish” – and reaffirming the feeling that something very strange should happen between now and the 10th so as not to see him in the final chapter of this edition. From the outset, the triumph will return the world throne to him at the close of the great American – regardless of the result he obtains, since he did not defend a single point – and he discounts one square in the face of his primary objective: to hunt down Margaret Court.
He could not achieve it at Wimbledon, surrendered in the final by Alcaraz, and aspires again to equal the record of records, defended by the Australian since he precisely won the US Open in 1973. Six steps now, if Djokovic succeeds It would equal the number of trophies obtained by Rafael Nadal and John McEnroe in New York, where no one has been more fruitful than Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, all five laurels. Back at the top of the rankingthe Balkan certifies the seventh change of leader so far this year in the ATP, the highest number since 2018.
In the next season, Nole will face the Valencian Bernabé Zapata, who beat the local Ethan Quinn 6-4, 6-4 and 6-3 in a fantastic day for Spanish tennis. Before he won, Rebeka Masarova dispatched Maria Sakkari (double 6-4) and Sara Sorribes to Anhelina Kalinina (6-4 and 7-5); rounded off Roberto Carballés, executioner of the Danish Holger Rune in the first victory of his career against a top-10: 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 and 6-2. He also defeated Alejandro Davidovich (6-4, 6-4 and 6-2 against Giron). This Tuesday, around 2.45 (Movistar), Carlos Alcaraz will debut against Dominik Koepfer.
Masarova’s Faith
“I think that in the end playing on a court is the same, they are the same dimensions and in the end, nothing changes,” said Carballés, superior to the fourth seed of the tournament on Court 5; “It is true that I was surprised too. I thought we were going to play in a slightly bigger one, but I don’t think it was something that went in my favor”. In addition to Rune’s fall, Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, who has been plunged since March into a deep crisis of results, was added to that wing of the table –corresponding to Djokovic.
He also beat for the first time a top-10 Masarova, who in Madrid had already made a serious threat to knock down Sakkari, the eighth in the world. “That game surely also helped me to know that I’m there, that I can be at the level and that I was missing details,” said the Spaniard, while Sorribes, recent champion in Cleveland, took advantage of the good momentum and became the best national player positioned on the WTA list thanks to her good coping with the rude Kalinina. Despite the entity of the rivals, she only yielded in the opening day the Cantabrian Cristina Bucsa, inferior to the highly experienced Petra Kvitova (6-1 and 7-6 (5).
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