Almost every time Novak Djokovic has competed in a grand slam tournament this year, a record has fallen. In New York alone, he became the oldest man in more than three decades to reach the fourth round of the US Open, then he repeated the trick by winning that fourth-round match. Djokovic’s straight-sets victory against Jan Lennard Struff established the 38-year-old as the oldest man in the open era to reach the quarter-finals of all four grand slam tournaments in a calendar year.
Djokovic’s late-career achievements are unprecedented but, for a player who has won every single significant trophy, only more big trophies will satiate those boundless ambitions. Once again, he has plotted his path back to the late rounds of a grand slam tournament full of hopes that fortune will fall his way, allowing him to pull off his greatest achievement: a 25th grand slam title.
After his semi-final defeat at Wimbledon, Djokovic opted to use his time between the grand slam tournaments to focus on his family and himself rather than competing. Rust was predictably visible on Djokovic’s game during his first two rounds but since his quality four-set victory against Cameron Norrie, Djokovic has played himself into good form. His serving has particularly been spectacular, allowing him to play the brand of efficient, attacking tennis that is essential to his continued success.
The question remains whether Djokovic will be physically robust enough through two gruelling weeks of best of five sets matches to compete at a high enough level against the very best players. In Australia, Djokovic retired from his semi-final match against Alexander Zverev because of a hamstring injury. At Wimbledon, he was clearly hampered physically in his defeat against Jannik Sinner and he later cast significant doubt on the ability of his ageing body to withstand the physical strain of these tournaments.
Although his playing level has been moving in the right direction, Djokovic’s first four matches have only further underlined those issues. Almost every win has been accompanied by some sort of physical issue, with Djokovic calling on the trainer to attend to his neck, shoulder, lower back and other issues. He has been frank about his uncertain physical state.
“I don’t think there is much more that I could do than what I’m doing now, to be honest,” he said. “If the body doesn’t listen to me when I go deep in the grand slam tournaments, as it was kind of the case last few slams, then that’s a hard one to swallow for me, because I know the amount of hours I’m putting in daily to care for my body, but at the same time, you know, biological age is not something that I guess you can reverse, and it is what it is.”
The next challenge is significant. Djokovic faces Taylor Fritz, the No 4 seed and a finalist last year, a player who has made such steady improvements over the years and who will enter Arthur Ashe Stadium desperate to put together a signature win at his home tournament.
At a time when his peers, the likes of Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev, are all navigating certain struggles, Fritz quietly continues to rise and eke out as much of his talent as possible. This match-up, however, is illustrative of Fritz’s shortcomings, particularly his lack of athleticism and variation. Djokovic holds a 10-0 record against the American since their first meeting in 2019, with eight straight-sets wins.
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Fritz is adamant that most of those early meetings are irrelevant considering the player he has now become: “For me, in my head, I’m not thinking about all the losses I had to Novak when I was, I don’t know, like, five years ago,” he said. “I was nowhere near the level of player that I am now.”
While Fritz looks towards most significant matches of his career at his physical peak, in some of the best form of his life and as the higher ranked player, Djokovic is just trying to hold on for as long as he can. It is a testament to the Serb’s unprecedented success and longevity that he will still head on to Arthur Ashe Stadium as the player to beat.
