It seems that after every Grand Slam old ground is being resurfaced by the Serbian and now with his tenth Grand Slam title he is level with American Bill Tilden, and one more major will see him join the company of Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg. So considering what Djokovic is achieving and the records that he is likely to break in the future it is still quite hard to fathom how the New York crowd just couldn't embrace what they were witnessing late on finals night. Instead, with 99.9% of the crowd on his side, Federer was soaking up the most one-sided fanfare in recent memory and it seems an injustice to the sport that the biggest tennis stadium in the world could not appreciate another truly great sportsman in Djokovic too. But in the end Novak didn't need the crowd's support, with his resilient never-say-die attitude the now 10-time Grand Slam champion soaked up the Federer game emphatically to leave the Swiss still searching for that elusive 18th title. Roger went into the match having only been broken twice throughout the whole tournament and having not lost a set since the Wimbledon final. But Novak had other ideas and within seven games he had broken the Swiss's serve twice and taken the first set. Federer's game was in constant trouble but Djokovic had his own service problems to contend with especially with Federer employing his new SABR (Sneak Attack By Roger) tactic. The move which sees Federer rush to the net on his opponent's second serve has had its fair share of praise and criticism, but none more-so than Djokovic's coach and six-time Grand Slam champion Boris Becker. The German said:
"If he would have played a McEnroe, Connors, Lendl or even me, we would have said 'Roger, in all honesty I like you very much but I'll go straight at you'. "In my generation guys would not have accepted as it is now. It's almost disrespecting the other guy's serve. Everybody talks about that's his new strategy - he comes in. It's within the rules."
However unlike Cincinnati where the tactic surprised Djokovic and through him off-guard, this time the technique proved futile. Although it did slightly upend Novak's game giving out a couple of double-faults, the Serbian deftly lobbed the on-rushing Federer on many occasions and also made quick passing shots that the Swiss could only watch sail past him. It was all reminiscent of the Wimbledon final in the summer, Federer has the game to trouble Djokovic but the Serb always has the answers. The telling story in this final however was the 23 break point opportunities that Federer had opened up on Djokovic's serve. But the Swiss could convert only four of them with Novak duly saving the other 19. Federer managed to snatch the second set 7-5 and although he almost forced a "possible" fifth set after coming back from 2-5 to 4-5 in the fourth, Djokovic, like so often throughout the match, simply performed better on the bigger points.
Djokovic has already guaranteed the end-of-year ranking of No.1 for the fourth time in five years and with his tenth Grand Slam title has now well and truly established himself as one of the greatest players of all time. So to put his ten titles in a little more perspective and to give a good argument on why he could one day be considered the best, then look at this:
Federer's opponents in first 10 Grand Slam wins
Mark Philippoussis
Marat Safin
Andy Roddick
Lleyton Hewitt
Andy Roddick
Andre Agassi
Marcos Baghdatis
Rafael Nadal
Andy Roddick
Fernando González
Djokovic's opponents in first 10 Grand Slam wins
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Andy Murray
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal
Andy Murray
Roger Federer
Andy Murray
Roger Federer
Roger Federer
With 17 Grand Slam titles, it's hard to argue against why Federer is definitely one of the best but when you look at the opponents that he has beaten to win the majority of his titles, then one might wonder that if he had been born a little later, would he have won as many? Safin, Roddick, Hewitt are all fantastic players with five slams between them but they are never in the same conversations when you are discussing the greats such as Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, Sampras or Borg. Djokovic has simply beaten much tougher opposition in the finals, he has had to adapt his game to challenge the top players and his fight to get to the top has been long and hard but he has reaped the rewards. It's just an observation that is worth noting because it'll always be something that will be looked at when discussing the "greatest". So with at least 2-3 years of top play left, could Novak potentially overtake Roger's 17 titles? Djokovic interestingly revealed that: "I would not be truthful to you if I would say I'm not thinking about it. Of course I am".
It was a disappointing campaign for Britain's Andy Murray who fell in the fourth round to South African Kevin Anderson. This was Murray's earliest exit from a slam since the 2010 US Open when he lost to Stan Wawrinka in the third round. Anderson had a stellar season prior to the upset over Murray by reaching the Queen's final and also taking Djokovic to five sets in the Wimbledon fourth round having taken a two set to love lead. He won the ATP 250 event in Winston-Salem in the build up to the US and by reaching the quarter-finals at the Open he had made his deepest run at a slam in his career to date. He comprehensively outplayed the Scot from start to finish in a four set victory and although Murray was out-of-sorts throughout the match it was most likely because the South African did not put a foot wrong. Anderson's run came to a swift end in the next round however to Wawrinka, but maybe International broadcaster CNN will start to take better notice of the new World No.10 now after his impressive campaign when they so eloquently tweeted: "Andy Murray crashes out to unknown South African Kevin Anderson". How nice of them.
It was an equally disappointing tournament for Rafael Nadal after his five set defeat to Italian Fabio Fognini. What was more worrying for the Spaniard's fans was that for the first time in Nadal's Grand Slam career he lost a match after having been two sets to love up. Change is of utmost importance for Nadal if he is to salvage the rest of his career, that's not to say his tennis days are over but if he wants to challenge for Grand Slams and Masters tournaments again then bringing maybe a new coach into the fold could help massively. He still lacks confidence on the big points, his so called "fearhand" is no longer feared, and his serve is a major weakness that gets exploited far too often.
Flushing Meadows has hosted an impressive tournament this year which created many tennis inducing headlines, let's take a look at five other stories that you may have missed over the fortnight of action:
- Last year's runner up Kei Nishikori was knocked out in the first round to Frenchman Benoit Paire.
- But defending champion Marin Cilic put up an admirable defence of his title by reaching the semi-finals, losing to eventual champion Djokovic.
- American Mardy Fish played out his last competitive tennis match in his career when he bowed out to Feliciano Lopez in the second round.
- Many players complained of the "inhuman" conditions at the Open, with American Jack Sock succumbing to the heat when he collapsed on court with severe cramp.
- The tournament had a record number of retirements for Men's Singles with a total of 14 players retiring through either injury or fitness problems.
So Novak Djokovic claims what is arguably his finest Grand Slam victory of his career. His second US Open crown, his tenth major, his third slam title of the year and his World No.1 status is guaranteed for the remainder of the season. Whatever happens now to the end of the year, Djokovic is the World's best and it seems that even in the foreseeable future, nobody is going to stop the Serbian machine.
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