With the current suspension of the ATP and WTA Tours, USOpen.org is reliving some of the biggest tennis matches in the tournament's history in photos. In our latest featured match, we look back at the 2011 US Open men's singles final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
Watch a live stream of this classic match on Facebook Live and Twitter on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. The full match will be posted on Sunday on the US Open YouTube Channel.
Novak Djokovic defeated defending champion Rafael Nadal, 6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1, in the final of the 2011 US Open to give the Serb his first title in New York, his third Grand Slam championship of the year and his fourth major overall.
Djokovic, who also won the Australian Open and Wimbledon that year, saved two match points in a five-set semifinal win over Roger Federer before defeating Nadal in the final. It was the first time the men's singles champion at the US Open won the title after being match point down since Andy Roddick’s five-set semifinal win over David Nalbandian preceded his triumph at Flushing Meadows in 2003.
Here’s a look back in photos at this rematch of the 2010 championship, which Nadal won, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
Top seed Djokovic and No. 2 Nadal had squared off a total of 28 times heading into the final, with Nadal leading their career meetings, 16-12, but Djokovic winning all five matches the two had contested in 2011.
During the 2011 season, Djokovic had compiled an outstanding 63-2 record, including winning two Grand Slam titles—the Australian Open and Wimbledon. His previous best performances in New York were runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2010. Since winning the 2011 title, he has gone on to win two other times in New York, in 2015 and 2018.
Nadal’s 2011 results included winning his sixth French Open championship, reaching the final at Wimbledon and advancing to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. He won his first US Open title in 2010 and has triumphed three more times in Flushing Meadows, in 2013, 2017 and 2019.
Djokovic dropped his first set of the 2011 tournament in the quarterfinals against fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic and battled back from two sets and two match points down to defeat Roger Federer, 6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5, in a three-hour, 51-minute semifinal.
Nadal’s road to the final included wins over 2003 champion Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals and No. 4 seed Andy Murray in the semifinals.
Nadal, then 25, jumped to a 2-0 lead to open the match, but 24-year-old Djokovic reeled off six straight games and went on to take the opening set.
The second set was a replay of the first, with Nadal breaking early for a 2-0 lead and then Djokovic taking control to win the set, claiming a 2-0 lead.
A tiebreak was needed to settle the third set. Nadal capitalized on two Djokovic errors and jumped to a 4-1 lead. He eventually won the tiebreak, 7-3, sending the match to a fourth set.
Djokovic took control of set four from the start, breaking in the second game with a forehand winner and then cruised from there, winning the match in four hours, 10 minutes.
"It was a tough match," said Nadal, who had 10 major titles to his name at the time (he now owns 19). "Physical, mental, everything."
Djokovic, who broke Nadal's serve 11 times in the match, became only the second man to defeat Federer and Nadal during the course of one Grand Slam tournament. Juan Martin del Potro also beat both players en route to the 2009 US Open title.
"The bottom line is that that's the whole point—to win Grand Slams—because these are the tournaments most important and most valuable in our sport," said Djokovic, who became only the sixth man in the Open era to win three of the four majors in the same year. "Right now I feel drained emotionally and physically and mentally. But I have this trophy here, and this is what I was fighting for."
