In the end, it seems, the pressure proved just a bit too much even for world number one Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic, who finally received some real love from a crowd as he was going for what would have been a truly historic achievement, has began to earn praise as the prospective Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) in tennis history. He entered the US Open Men's Final yesterday sporting a 27-0 record in Grand Slam matches during this calendar year, and was aiming to do what no man has done since Rod Laver managed to do it in 1969, and what nobody at all has managed to do since Steffi Graf won the calendar Golden Slam (all four Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal) in 1988.
But Daniil Medvedev had an excellent game plan,and executed it nearly to perfection. His service game was outstanding, particularly his first serves. And he managed to be just good enough in his return game to break Djokovic one time in each of the three sets.
The result?
Medvedev cruised to a surprisingly easy (at least he made it look astonishingly easy) and quite quick straight sets victory over the world number one, and the man who many feel has earned himself the status of being the GOAT in men's tennis, even over Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Medvedev, who is currently ranked number two in the world, has been one of the sport's elites for a few years now, but until yesterday's triumph, the one major thing that had been absent in his repertoire was a Grand Slam title. He had gone to two Grand Slam finals before, losing to Nadal here in the US Open final in 2019, and then losing to Djokovic in Australia earlier this year. Now, however, he has finally joined the ranks of those who have won at least one Grand Slam title. He joins Thiem as the only two twenty somethings who managed to get past the Big Three in tennis to earn a Grand Slam title. It happened for a second year in a row at Flushing Meadows in New York, because that is where Thiem won his first, and so far only, Grand Slam. The question is whether this was some abbaration which one of the Big Three will set right in the next Grand Slam tournaments next year, or whether this truly does mark the beginning of the end of their collective dominance of the sport.
Neither Federer nor Nadal even played at the US Open. That left the burden on Djokovic, who played extremely well in getting to the US Open Men's Final yesterday. Once there, however, his luck and his incredible run ended abruptly, shockingly.
After the match, while clearly disappointed, Djokovic also expressed relief that it was all over. The pressure proved too much, like it did with Serena Williams in 2015. I think that there is a big difference between Rod Laver winning the calendar Grand Slam in 1969, or even Steffi Graf winning the calendar Golden Slam in 1988, and trying to win it in this modern age of 24-hour news and sports channels and unbelievable media hype. This match made news that transcended the tennis world and even the sports world, as it attracted A-list celebrities from Hollywood. That has to add a considerable amount of weight on the shoulders of the man trying to make the history, and it proved just too much for Djokovic. It was similar, in some ways, to when a team that goes undefeated for a long time in the NFL, or perhaps the NCAA, finally loses.
Now, Djokovic no longer has to worry about being perfect or making history. Now, he can focus on doing what he does best: winning tennis matches and adding to his already impressive list of trophies and accomplishments, and cementing his status (which I personally feel he has mostly achieved at this point in time) as truly the GOAT in tennis history.
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