Djokovic opens bid for record 25th Grand Slam title with straight-sets win
5 Canadians open singles play Tuesday in New York at final Grand Slam of season
Novak Djokovic began his bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title and tied Roger Federer with his 89th match win at the U.S. Open by defeating qualifier Radu Albot of Moldova 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 on Monday night in New York.
The second-seeded Djokovic, again wearing a gray sleeve over his surgically repaired right knee, was competing for the first time since claiming an Olympic gold medal three weeks ago at the Paris Games, the last significant achievement that was missing from his resume.
"It's always challenging to start, particularly when you haven't played on this surface for five, six months, and coming off an Olympic gold and playing on clay. I haven't had any official matches before the U.S. Open. So I'm expecting to be probably challenged a little bit more in the opening rounds," he said. "Hopefully, I can play better each day."
He said his knee, which was operated on in early June, feels fine.
Djokovic, a 37-year-old from Serbia, improved to 18-0 in first-round matches at Flushing Meadows and is now 89-13 overall at the hard-court tournament, which he's won four times, including a year ago. He's never lost earlier than the third round at the U.S. Open; Albot never has been past the third round in 30 appearances at majors.
The retired Federer went 89-14 in New York, with five consecutive championships from 2004 to 2008. He's the most recent man to win the U.S. Open at least twice in a row. Among men, only Jimmy Connors, who went 98-17, won more matches than Djokovic and Federer at the event.
Djokovic never has lost a Grand Slam match to someone ranked as low as No. 138 Albot. And Albot is now 0-12 against opponents ranked in the top 10.
Next up for Djokovic is a countryman, familiar opponent and friend, Laslo Djere, who advanced with a 6-7 (7), 6-1, 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-2 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff. A year ago, Djokovic met Djere in the third round at the U.S. Open; Djere took the first two sets before Djokovic came through in five.
"It's a guaranteed third round for one of the Serbian guys. Hopefully it's going to be me. But Djere is a guy that really likes playing on a big stage. I think he also loves the conditions here. It's a bit quicker. Ball stays low. He has a very flat backhand particularly and very good serve, great return. He's physically as fit as anybody," Djokovic said. "I remember very well our match. It was a very tough match. I'm going to try to analyze that and hopefully do some things even better than I did last year."
WATCH l Djokovic completes career Golden Slam with Olympic title:
Defending champ Gauff wins opener
The chant rang out in cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday at the U.S. Open before Coco Gauff's first service game of her first match of her first Grand Slam tournament as a defending champion: "Here we go, Coco! Here we go!"
Coming to Flushing Meadows off a series of early exits at other events, Gauff already was down 1-0 to Varvara Gracheva, having dropped the match's initial game at love by making four groundstroke errors. What followed was a tough, tight game, featuring 14 points across eight minutes and three break chances for Gracheva.
The important part, of course, was that Gauff saved all of those break points, claimed that game, and suddenly was in complete control on the way to a 6-2, 6-0 victory that not only put the 20-year-old American in the second round but also told her — and everyone else — that her game is in better shape than it appeared lately.
"The last couple of weeks were tough, and I was like, 'I have to do this and do that, but I don't have to prove anything to anyone except myself.' So ... [these] two weeks are just about proving all the expectations that I have on myself," the No. 3-seeded Gauff said. "I have many more years coming back here and I'm not going to win every year. Just that perspective and just having the belief that I can — but not the expectation that I should."
Day 1 at the year's last Grand Slam tournament went about as well as possible for Gauff and another young American featured in Ashe, 13th-seeded Ben Shelton, a semifinalist a year ago who beat 2020 champion Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. It was the last U.S. Open match for Thiem, who turns 31 next week and is retiring after this season.
"Obviously she plays with a lot of passion," Shelton, 21, said about Gauff. "You could tell that she cares out there. She's into it every time that she's on the court. I think that's something that the people love."
Zheng, Zverev among winners
Seeded women's winners included No. 7 Zheng Qinwen, the women's gold medallist at the Paris Olympics earlier this month; No. 24 Donna Vekic, the silver medallist; No. 12 Daria Kasatkina; and No. 14 Madison Keys.
No. 9 Maria Sakkari stopped playing after one set because of an injured right shoulder. The highest-seeded man out of the bracket during the day session was No. 15 Holger Rune, who was eliminated by Brandon Nakashima of the U.S. 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.
Among the men's seeds advancing were No. 4 Alexander Zverev, the runner-up to Thiem four years ago; No. 6 Andrey Rublev; No. 8 Casper Ruud, the 2022 runner-up at Flushing Meadows; No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov; and No. 12 Taylor Fritz.
Zheng is enjoying a breakthrough season that began with a run to the final at the Australian Open in January and reached a peak when she claimed China's first Summer Games singles gold. Monday was difficult at the outset against 2019 French Open semifinalist Amanda Anisimova, but Zheng eventually came back to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
"Everything starts at zero. You are not anymore the Olympic champion," Zheng said. "Just be humble and try to work, fight every single match, because if you don't fight, you have a big chance to lose."
Gauff rebounding from tough Olympic stretch
That mirrors Gauff's approach as she returns to the site of her greatest triumph so far.
If she was trying to start from scratch after early exits in three events at the Paris Games — not that she wants to forget about that trip to France; Gauff wore a necklace with the Olympic rings during Monday's match — followed by a two-match skid on North American hard courts, Gauff did a good job of it.
She only needed 66 minutes to win Monday, using some of her 10 aces to help erase all eight break points Gracheva accumulated, and compiling a 16-5 edge in winners.
Five Canadians are scheduled to open their tournament on Tuesday: Felix Auger-Aliassime (11 a.m. ET), Denis Shapovalov (2:15 p.m.) and Gabriel Diallo (3:30), followed by Leylah Fernandez (4:15 p.m.) and Bianca Andreescu (7 p.m.).
In the 2019 women's final, Andreescu downed tennis great Serena Williams 6-3, 7-5 to become the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title.
WATCH | Highlights from Andreescu's 2019 U.S. Open title win:
With files from CBC Sports
