US Open: Djokovic wins and reaches his 24th Grand Slam – 09/10/2023 – Sport

Serbian Novak Djokovic, 36, beat Russian Daniil Medvedev, 27, in the final of the US Open and won the tournament for the fourth time in his career. The decision, this Sunday (10), ended 3 sets to 0 for the Serbian (6-3, 7-6 and 6-3).

The match was a repeat of the final of the same tournament two years ago. In 2021, Medvedev beat Djokovic by 3 sets to 0 (triple 6-4) and won the championship. It was his first, and for now remains his only, Grand Slam title.

Djokovic is now the tennis player with the most Grand Slams in the open era. There are 24. Before, he was tied with the North American Serena Williams, who has 23. The Australian Margaret Court also has 24, but only 11 of them in the open era.

The Serbian, who is once again number 1 in the world, has 10 Australian Open titles, 3 Roland-Garros, 7 Wimbledon titles and now 4 US Open titles. Djokovic has played 72 Grand Slams in his career and reached the final of half of them, 36.

This year, it was everyone’s decision, and the only thing he didn’t win was Wimbledon, when he was defeated by 3 sets to 2 by the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, 20, in a match that lasted almost five hours. In 2021, he just didn’t win all the Grand Slams because Medvedev stopped him at the US Open.

After the victory, Djokovic wore a T-shirt in honor of Kobe Bryant, his friend, who died in 2020 — Bryant wore the number 24, now also the number of Grand Slams won by the Serbian.

On becoming the player with the most Grand Slams in the open era, the Serbian said he “lives a dream” and recalled the difficulties he went through to become a professional.

“Making history in this sport is special. There are no words. When I was 7 or 8 I wanted to be the best in the world and win Wimbledon. I never imagined that this would be the reality”, he stated. He also praised Medvedev during his speech.

In addition to the title, Djokovic takes home US$3 million (almost R$15 million); Medvedev won half that.

In this Sunday’s match, the Serbian had a relatively quiet first set – he broke the opponent’s service in his first service game and then, without being much threatened, held the advantage to close the partial at 6-3.

In the second, however, Medvedev improved a lot, and there were no breaks. The Russian even had a set point, saved by the Serbian, who prevailed in the tie-break (7-5 ​​victory). The partial lasted one hour and forty-five minutes and had very disputed points.

Whenever he felt threatened, Djokovic served openly and went up to the net, as Medvedev tends to position himself far from the line to receive services. The strategy worked very well.

In the final set, the game remained balanced, with both players achieving breaks. Djokovic, however, did it once more than his opponent and closed the game.