Novak Djokovic will make his debut at the 2024 US Open This coming Monday, August 26th, against Moldova Radu Albot. In the run-up to the clash, the Chisinau native spoke at a press conference and He surprised everyone by comparing the Serbian to Roger Federer.
The 34-year-old veteran and former No. 39 in the world in 2018 spoke about Nole and said that “I am clear that Djokovic is a more difficult opponent than Federer, against whom I played twice.”
And he clarified that “Having played against him, and also against other great players like Murray, can help me a lot in managing the emotions of a match like this. I am curious to see how the fact that it is a five-set match influences it. I need to be mentally prepared to make the necessary adjustments on the fly.”
The background between Albot and Federer prior to their clash against Djokovic
Albot faced Federer at the Miami Masters 1000 and the ATP 500 in Basel, both in 2019. In both matches, the Swiss won, losing only one set.
While the Moldovan faced top ten players ten times and was never able to winHis two best wins were against players ranked 12th: Pablo Carreño Busta (Wimbledon 2018) and Denis Shapovalov (ATP 250 Sofia 2020).
Radu reached the main draw of the 2024 US Open after qualifying, where he defeated Spaniard Javier Barranco Cosano, Frenchman Luca Van Assche and Japanese Shintaro Mochizuki. This will be the tenth time in her career that she has played in the main draw of this Grand Slam tournament: her best result was in 2017 when she reached the third round.
