One step away! Novak Djokovic overcomes a stern challenge from Alexander Zverev, advances into his 31st major final
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Novak Djokovic
World No.1 Novak Djokovic once again proved why he’s the best player in the world currently and continued his unbeaten streak at majors this season. He beat 4th seed Alexander Zverev in 5 sets 4-6,6-2,6-4,4-6,6-2 to advance into his 9th US Open final. Djokovic is now on a 27 match winning streak at majors this year and is just one win away from creating history and becoming the first man since Rod Laver to complete the calendar slam.
Djokovic also has a chance to take the all-time grand slam lead. He is currently tied with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at 20 majors and will be the favorite to win his 21st major when he steps on court for the final against Daniil Medvedev.
In the semifinal, both players, especially Zverev was positive on serve from the first set and pushed Djokovic deep in the court to open up for the winners. The German tested Djokovic’s patience and went for the kill during long rallies. His patience paid off as he got a decisive late break and consolidated it to win the opening set 6-4.
But it was Novak Djokovic at the other end and he was always going to step his game up. Like he did in the previous 3 matches, Djokovic brought his best game in the second set and dominated Zverev from the baseline. He started to take charge of the rallies and was soon up a break. He consolidated the serve only to get another break of serve. He wrapped up the set 6-2 to draw level.
Djokovic had the much needed momentum with him in the third set and he wasn’t going to let it slip. Zverev decided to go all in on his serve and was at times clocking 130+ mph second serves. This strategy worked well for him and he was on serve with Djokovic. But while serving to stay in the set at 4-5, Zverev couldn’t handle the pressure and lost serve to lose the set 4-6.
The fourth set was once again tight and Zverev continued with his all-in serve strategy which played out brilliantly for him. He was able to escape from long rallies on second serve and backed it with dominant baseline game. He got the decisive break midway in the fourth set and capitalized it to win the set 6-4 and force a decider.
But a double fault in his first service game saw all the momentum shift towards Djokovic. Zverev was now reluctant in serving big second serves and played the match into Djokovic’s hands. The Serbian machine once again smelled the opportunity and raised his game to take an early 5-0 lead which was always going to be decisive.
Although Zverev tried to fight back and broke Nole to get a break back, but he wasn’t able to hold serve and lost the set 2-6. With this in, Djokovic has entered his 31st major final and equaled Federer’s record of most major finals. He will compete for a 4th US Open and record 21st major on Sunday.
Also read: WATCH: Alexander Zverev wins an epic 53 shot rally against Novak Djokovic
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Lakshya Chopra
(2595 Articles Published)