For the first time since 2017, Novak Djokovic remains without a Grand Slam title. But experts warn against writing off the Serb.
Jannik Sinner wins the US Open and is the outstanding player of the current season.
John G. Fragrance / EPA
The Grand Slam season ended in New York on Monday night in the same way it had begun in Melbourne around eight months earlier: with a victory by Jannik Sinner. The 23-year-old South Tyrolean beat the American Taylor Fritz in three straight sets in the final of the US Open, destroying the hopes of the local audience of being able to celebrate another victory by an American 21 years after the young Andy Roddick’s victory in the Big Apple.
That was it. Sinner was simply too strong for the 26-year-old American. With his second major victory, he extended his lead at the top of the world rankings to 4105 points. That is the equivalent of two Grand Slam victories. The other two major titles of the season, the one on clay at Roland-Garros and the one on grass at Wimbledon, went to the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who is two years younger than Sinner but already has four major titles. Despite this, Alcaraz is currently only number 3 in the rankings behind the German Alexander Zverev.
Sinner and Alcaraz have been the two big dominators of the season so far. In addition to the four Grand Slam tournaments, they won nine tournaments together, including the ATP 1000 events in Miami, Cincinnati (Sinner) and Indian Wells (Alcaraz). The other three important tournaments in Rome, Madrid and Monte Carlo went to the German Alexander Zverev, the Russian Andrei Rublew and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Will Novak Djokovic even miss the ATP Finals?
Novak Djokovic is missing from this list. He won Olympic gold in Paris around a month ago, closing the last real gap in his impressive list of achievements. But considering his long-standing dominance, this is a surprisingly meager result for the successful Serb. In the annual rankings, which at the end of the year decide which eight players are allowed to take part in the ATP Finals in Turin, Djokovic is currently only in 9th place and would therefore not be taking part in this last big rendezvous of the tennis season in November.
Only ranked 9th in the annual rankings: Novak Djokovic.
Eduardo Munoz / Reuters
But the tennis season is not over yet. In addition to the Swiss Indoors in Basel (ATP 500), the ATP 1000 tournaments in Shanghai and Paris-Bercy are also on the program. Djokovic still has enough time to qualify for Turin. The question is more how much he wants to pull himself together again. In New York, as defending champion, he was defeated by Australian Alexei Popyrin, the earliest he had failed in a major tournament for a long time. After the match, he said: “Given how I felt and how I played, it is already a success for me just to have reached the third round here.”
For the first time since 2017, the Serb remains without a major title. He shares the record of 24 wins with Australian Margaret Court. For the first time since 2002, a season will end without one of the big three (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic) having won at least one of the major tournaments. The upheaval in men’s tennis that so many have been waiting for for so long now seems to have finally arrived.
This does not surprise Heinz Günthardt. The Zurich native, who has been following the tennis scene as a coach and analyst for various media since his retirement, says: “If anything surprises me, it is that it has taken so long for the new era to begin. The fact that we call it a surprise that Novak has not won a major title on the tour ultimately only shows how great his performances had been before.”
Djokovic’s missed opportunity in summer 2021
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are the two players who are likely to lead tennis into the next era. Both are at an age where they can easily dominate the circus for ten years. Günthardt says that it was already clear several years ago that both of them had that little something that set them apart from their competitors. “They are a touch better than Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas or Taylor Fritz, who are also excellent tennis players.”
At the same time, however, Günthardt warns against writing Djokovic off completely. “I have no problem believing that he can win one or two more major titles and thereby claim the record.” At the same time, however, he does not believe that he can dominate the tour again as he has done over the past ten years.
Three years ago, the Serb was one win away from becoming the first player since Australian Rod Laver to win the calendar Grand Slam, all four major titles within a calendar year. Then, with history in mind, he collapsed under the pressure and lost in the final to Daniil Medvedev. Even the exceptional athlete Djokovic is unlikely to achieve this one major goal.
Sinner’s award ceremony after his final victory over Taylor Fritz at the US Open in New York.
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