Novak Djokovic pulled out of the Western & Southern Open, that means the following time he can be in motion can be as he tries to finish a calendar-year Grand Slam on the U.S. Open.
The top-ranked Djokovic wrote on social media that he wants “a bit longer to recover and recuperate after quite a taxing journey from Australia to Tokyo.”
He is 21-0 in Grand Slam motion in 2021, profitable the titles on the Australian Open on arduous courts in February, the French Open on clay courts in June and Wimbledon on grass courts in July. No man had even gained the primary three main tennis championships, not to mention all 4, in a single season since Rod Laver’s true Grand Slam in 1969.
After Wimbledon, Djokovic went to the Tokyo Olympics in pursuit of a Golden Slam, a singles gold medal to go together with all 4 main trophies in a single season, however he didn’t handle to gather a medal of any coloration there.
The 34-year-old from Serbia misplaced to Germany’s Alexander Zverev within the singles semifinals, then to Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta within the bronze medal match.
“I just didn’t deliver yesterday and today. The level of tennis dropped. Also due to exhaustion- mentally and physically,” Djokovic stated after the latter defeat.
“I gave it all, whatever I had left in the tank, which was not so much.”
Djokovic additionally misplaced with accomplice Nina Stojanovic within the combined doubles semifinals, then withdrew from that occasion’s bronze medal match.
The Western & Southern Open begins subsequent weekend in Cincinnati. The most important draw of the U.S. Open begins Aug. 30 in New York.
Last 12 months, Djokovic gained his second Western & Southern Open title; the event was held at Flushing Meadows, the positioning of the U.S. Open, as a part of a particular back-to-back staging of the 2 hard-court occasions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Djokovic wrote Monday that he’ll “turn my focus and attention to US Open and spend some more time with family. See you in New York soon!”
In addition to pursuing what can be solely the fourth one-year Slam by a person, Laver did it twice within the Sixties; Don Budge did it within the Thirties, Djokovic additionally can be attempting to assert his twenty first profession main title on the U.S. Open. That would break the boys’s mark of 20 he at the moment shares with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
