While fans seem to enjoy watching matches at midnight, Novak Djokovic took issue with starting his US Open title defence on Monday due to a late night.
To advance to the second round, a rusty Djokovic defeated qualifier Radu Albot 6-2, 6-2, 6-4; however, the two hours and seven minutes of play at Arthur Ashe Stadium continued until after midnight.
Djokovic talked about late-night matches after the match and said: “Well, I don’t think that ageing helps really staying so late and playing very late. I can feel, you know, my batteries are low now. I’m shutting down. But it’s been a long wait, to be honest. I thought I was going to go out on the court, like, 8:15 p.m. because Stephens was 6-0, 3-0 serving and then all of a sudden it turned out to be a two-and-a-half hour match or whatever.”
He added: “You just have to accept it, I guess. I like playing night matches, but I love to start first. So hopefully I get more chances to play at night and am scheduled first so we can start at a more decent time and finish at a more decent time. I guess for the fans there is something special about late-night finishes, particularly post-midnight. For us, I don’t know. It’s not really what you want but if you get a W (win), then it’s all good.”
Djokovic made a return to the court for the first time since taking home a much-coveted gold medal from the Olympics in the singles in Paris.
Djokovic produced ten double faults and nearly twice as many unforced errors as the winners, despite easily handling Albot. This was evident from his lack of warm-up matches.
Djokovic at the U.S. Open, ranking, and results in 2024
WWWWLWWWWW Ranked no.2, the Serbian has achieved a compiled 30-7 match record in 2024. The Serbian is competing at the U.S. Open where he managed to beat the world no.138 Radu Albot 6-2 6-2 6-4.
Novak Djokovic will fight against the world no.109 Laslo Djere in the 2nd round. Their record is 2-0 for Djokovic.
Djokovic conquered 1 title in 2024 in Paris. The Serbian got to the final in Wimbledon.
Novak won 99 titles in his career: 52 on hard courts, 20 on clay courts, 19 on indoor courts and 8 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
He is also scheduled to play in Paris (Rolex Paris Masters) after Shanghai. The main draw will start on the 30th of September.
