‘It was not a fair battle on the court,’ Novak Djokovic sympathizes with Holger Rune but ‘pleased’ with his opening round victory at the 2021 US Open
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Novak Djokovic
World No.1 Novak Djokovic started his quest to a historic 21st slam with a win over US Open debutant Holger Rune. The Serb machine beat the 18-year old qualifier in four sets 6-1,6-7(5),6-2,6-1 and stormed into the second round. Djokovic, who practiced with Rune earlier this year, is now just 6 wins away from a historic calendar slam.
Djokovic is also the overwhelming favorite to win the US Open this year and showcased his class right from the start. He dominated the serve early in the first set and outclassed Rune in the baseline rallies. Rune was visibly nervous on his debut and got broken multiple times. Djokovic eased with the first set 6-1.
Rune was a much better player in the second set and shocked everyone by breaking Djokovic upfront and taking a 3-0 lead. But the top seed bounced back with a break for himself. The set eventually went into a tiebreaker and courtesy a double fault from Djokovic, Rune took a huge 4-0 lead. The Dane went onto win the tiebreaker, dropping 5 points.
The match was perfectly poised with Rune challenging Djokovic but to his dismay, he developed cramps in the start of the third set and wasn’t able to move around the court. He was left a sitting duck for the remainder of the match and lost the last two sets fairly quickly, 2-6,1-6.
In the on court interview, Djokovic sympathized with Rune and gave him all the credit for fighting. “It’s tough to talk about [the] third and fourth sets because he barely moved. [From] my side, I started great. Played a really, really good first set. After that, I don’t know, I was 4-3 serving in the second set. Everything was working well, but then I just lost the first serve,” Djokovic said.
“Credit to him for fighting. He had the crowd behind him. It was tough to play in my first match, even though I had tonnes of experience playing on this court, for him it was the first one. Still, you get nerves. You still are feeling a little bit rusty at the beginning. Obviously I’m pleased with the way I finished the match. Again, it was not a fair battle on the court with his unfortunate injury and cramping.”
Djokovic also revealed what he told Rune after the match and lauded his dignity to finish the match. “I just told him that he handled himself extremely well. He didn’t want to stop,” Djokovic said.
“I thought he was going to stop [at] the end of the third. He just kept going with dignity, finished off the match. He deserved definitely my respect, the respect of a lot of people. He’s still very, very young, 18 years old. He’s got plenty of time ahead of him. I’m sure we’re going to see a lot of him in the future.”
‘I never felt anything like this,’ Rune on his US Open debut
Rune too expressed his disappointment regarding his fitness and revealed how it was impossible for him to compete. “Unfortunately, my fitness let me down. I started cramping already in the beginning of the third set. From there on, it was tough,” Rune said. “I knew if I [wanted] to win, I really had to fight for every point. With my body at this point, it was impossible,” he said.
The 18-year old received a lot of support from the New York crowd and said that the feeling was ‘unbelievable’.
“I never felt anything like this. It was [an] unbelievable feeling staying there. I tried to give the crowd something, fight for every point, be pumped and everything,” Rune said. “The crowd was unbelievable. I couldn’t have asked for more. I never tried anything like this. It was a pretty sick feeling.”
Meanwhile, Djokovic will now face Tallon Griekspoor in the second round on Thursday.
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Lakshya Chopra
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