The third round of a Grand Slam tournament is the first in which seeded players can begin to face one another. That isn’t the case for Novak Djokovic at the 2021 US Open, however, as his third-round opponent, Kei Nishikori, is unseeded—an opportunity that bodes well for the world No. 1 to continue his pursuit of the Grand Slam into the next round.
This year’s tournament is the 16th US Open of Djokovic’s career, and he has lost to an unseeded player only once in all those years—in 2005, his first US Open, to Fernando Verdasco.
Seeding players at the US Open was instituted a century ago to end “blind” draws and eliminate the possibility of having the tournament’s top players face one another in the early rounds. As few as eight players were seeded in a men’s singles draw until the start of the Open era in 1968, when the number of seeds was increased to 16 and was expanded again in 2001 to the current 32 seeds.
Djokovic has been seeded 15 times at the US Open, putting him behind only Roger Federer and Jimmy Connors (18 times each) and Andre Agassi (16 times) as the men who have been seeded most often at the tournament in the Open era.
At the 2021 US Open, Djokovic is the No. 1 seed for the third consecutive year.
“Of course, the top seeds are the top favorites to go far and go deep in the tournament,” Djokovic said as this year’s tournament got underway, “but I’ve been in this situation numerous times in my life.”
He has indeed. Djokovic has been the US Open’s top seed eight times, which is not only the most in the Open era, but equals Bill Tilden’s all-time record set between 1922 and 1930.
Seventeen different players besides Djokovic have been the tournament’s No. 1 seed since the Open era began. Ten of them never won the tournament as the top seed, while seven of them succeeded in living up to their top billing: Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Even so, none of these all-time greats owns a flawless record as the US Open’s top seed. Federer’s overall record in winning the title when he’s been No. 1 is 4-1; Connors and Nadal are both 2-1; Lendl is 2-2; McEnroe is 2-3; Laver is 1-3; and Sampras is 1-4.
Djokovic stands in the middle of that pack, capturing the title twice in his seven previous appearances as the top seed. The other times, he was a runner-up twice, a semifinalist once and exited in the Round of 32 twice. Of course, he’s also enjoyed success in New York when he wasn’t the No. 1 seed, most notably in 2018, when he was seeded sixth and won his third US Open title.
Djokovic knows that a player who starts out at the head of the class doesn’t necessarily teach everyone a lesson every time out. But should he win his fourth US Open title this year, he would tie McEnroe and Nadal’s total and be one behind Open era leaders Connors, Federer and Sampras—in addition to securing his all-time record 21st major championship and completing a Grand Slam.
For achieving all that, Djokovic would most certainly receive the highest of marks.
