The third round of the US Open hasn’t even started yet as Novak Djokovic’s journey to the final already looks like a clear highway. After four days and two rounds, 15 of the 32 New York Grand Slam seeds have already left, including nine in the lower half of the table, where the Serb is. Main rivals on the road to world number 2 until the final, the Dane Holger Rune (4?), the Norwegian Casper Ruud (5?) and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (7?) are part of the carnage.
The first, who had given up at the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati (Ohio) in mid-August, hit in the back, was eliminated from the start by the Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena (6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6- 2). The second surrendered in five sets (6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 0-6, 6-2) in the next round against Zhizhen Zhang (67?), who thus became the first Chinese to beat a top 5 player in the world. As for the Greek, he is undoubtedly the one who will harbor the most regrets. Tsitsipas was also beaten in his second game of the tournament by Swiss qualifier Dominic Stricker (128?) as he served for the game in the fourth set (7-5, 6-7, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3).
For his part, Novak Djokovic, back in New York after being banned from entering the United States in 2022 because he was not vaccinated against Covid-19, flew over his first two meetings. “I had the impression that if he wanted to put me 6-0 three times, he could do it”, even said Frenchman Alexandre Muller (84?), swept away in the first round (6-0, 6-2, 6 -3) – a victory that ensures the Serb to become world number 1 again after the tournament. His next victim, the Spaniard Bernabe Zapata Miralles (76?), only managed to take one more game from him (6-4, 6-1, 6-1).
The Americans to play the spoilsports
“Nole” continues his quest for a twenty-fourth Grand Slam – of which he alone holds the men’s record for titles since his coronation at Roland-Garros – on the night of Friday September 1 to Saturday September 2 against his compatriot Laslo Djere (38? ). If, theoretically, the final already seems to reach out to him, he will however have to be wary of a trio of young Americans, now the best ranked in his half of the table. “It’s a very exciting generation with typically ‘American-style’ players, former world number 7 Marion Bartoli told Le Monde on the sidelines of Roland-Garros. They’re big hitters and they do a lot of forehand shifts. »
Spearheading this new guard, Taylor Fritz (9?) – who faces Czech qualifier Jakub Mensik (206?) at 1 a.m. (Paris time) on the night from Friday to Saturday – should be the first to stand up on the route of the Serb, in the quarter-finals. He may have never made it to week two at Flushing Meadows, but the 25-year-old is becoming more and more consistent in big games. In 2022, he won his first Masters 1000 – the most important category after the Grand Slams – at his home in Indian Wells (California), and reached the last four of the year-end Masters, which brings together the best eight players of the season.
If the logic is respected, the numbers two and three of American tennis Frances Tiafoe (10?) and Tommy Paul (14?) – who play their third round on Friday evening – will face each other in the other quarter-final at the bottom of the table. If this duel takes place, its winner will then be Novak Djokovic’s last obstacle before the final.
“Tiafoe is a huge showman, he had matches in New York in 2022 that were just fabulous,” recalls Marion Bartoli. He struck a blow by eliminating Spaniard Rafael Nadal, then world number 3, in the round of 16, before going on to face Russian Andrey Rublev and qualifying for his first semi-final in a major tournament.
More in the shadow of his two compatriots, Tommy Paul nevertheless had the best season of his career. The 26-year-old New Jersey native broke into the top 20 after his first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open and beat No. 1 Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in mid-August. at the Masters 1000 in Toronto (Canada).
But the mission of the American trio seems almost impossible: between them, they have never managed to beat Novak Djokovic and have only managed to take three sets from him in ten confrontations. Unless the support of the public gives them that extra soul to finally climb the Serbian mountain.
