Novak Djokovic has made a strong start at this year’s US Open. In the first round in New York, the Serbian tennis star defeated American Learner Tien in three sets – 3-0 (6:1, 7:6(3), 6:1), in nearly two and a half hours of play.
Novak Djokovic started the match with a bang and won the first set almost effortlessly, in which he gave only one game to his opponent – 6:1.
In the second, however, Learner Tien raised the level of his game and even at one point at 5:4 in the game in his favor had a set point, but failed to realize it, and later Novak Djokovic showed class and pulled out the set after a tiebreak. The Serb, however, felt some discomfort and even after the end of the set he requested a medical timeout.
Then the third set started with a break from Learner Tien and the situation did not look rosy for Novak Djokovic, who quickly recovered, picked up the pace and won the next five games in a row to lead 5:1.
Then the Serb served for the match, but showed unexpected hesitation and allowed one of the breaks to be returned. However, this did not prove fatal, as in the very next game Novak Djokovic sealed his victory when serving to Learner Tien for the final 6:2.
Thus Novak Djokovic qualified for the second round of the competition, where he will meet another American – the qualifier Zachary Svajda, who defeated Zsombor Piros (Hungary) in the first round.
Novak Djokovic became the first player in the Open Era since 1968 to record 75 consecutive first-round wins at a Slam tournament, 55 of them in three sets.
“It was a strange match. The first set lasted 20 minutes, the second one an hour and 20. Things were very different. At the beginning I felt great, and then something happened to me, I don’t know what. It was important for me to stay calm and take the tiebreak. After that I started to feel good again. I certainly made a great start to the campaign, but I also have some concerns. I’m not injured, but I felt very strange physically in the second set. There were some pretty long rallies and I seemed to have trouble recovering from them. The good thing is that now I will have two days off until the next match”, commented Novak Djokovic.
