Novak Djokovic completed his return to the top table of men’s tennis with a stunning victory at the 2018 US Open, equalling a men’s singles records at the same time.
Twelve months earlier, Djokovic had been out of the Tour with injury and going through what were described as ‘personal problems’. After winning the 2016 French Open, to complete his career Grand Slam, he experienced an unexpected and demoralising decline. He failed to reach the semi-finals in eight Grand Slam events in a row, and with an elbow injury further exacerbating his struggles, ended up taking six months away from the Tour to recover.
But that break appeared to have enabled him to regain his motivation and his form and he came roaring back at Wimbledon, where he won his fourth title at the All England Club. In fact, Djokovic had been the dominant force of the summer and went into the US Open as the narrow favourite to win the tournament, according to the implied probabilities on the bigbetbookmakers.com site.
Although he found the going tough in the early rounds as he adjusted to the humidity of New York, by the time he reached the third round, he was in top gear. In fact he didn’t drop a single set from that point onwards, displaying the trademark Djokovic stamina and shot power. His encounter with Juan Martin del Petro promised to be a tough challenge, but the big-serving Argentinian was ground down by Djokovic. Up to the final, del Petro had seen 41 percent of his serves unreturned, but in the final, the figure was 17 percent as Djokovic wore him down and claimed the title in three sets.
In the process, Djokovic won his third US Open and his fourteenth Grand Slam title, bringing him level with Pete Sampras on the all-time list, six behind Roger Federer and two behind Rafael Nadal. He also achieved the Wimbledon and US Open double for the third time in his career.
Nadal, the defending champion and top seed, had a tough tournament. He dropped sets in the third and fourth round, and was then taken to five sets by Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals. That titanic struggle seemed to take its toll as Nadal faced up to Del Potro in the semi-final and after losing the first two sets, Nadal was forced to retire, suffering from knee pain.
Second seed Roger Federer also suffered a disappointing tournament. Bidding for a sixth US Open title, he cruised through to the fourth round without dropping a set, but was then dumped out of the tournament by American John Millman, who earned his first ever win against a player ranked in the top ten. Millman lost in straight sets to Djokovic in the quarter finals, but it represented his best ever Grand Slam performance. Marin Cilic was the only other top ten seed to reach the last eight, where he was beaten in five sets by Kei Nishikori, Djokovic’s semi-final victim.
