Roger Federer was incredulous.
Seated before the gathered media in Interview Room 1, just down the hallway from the Arthur Ashe Stadium court upon which, for the second year in a row, he had blown two match points in a five-set semifinal against Novak Djokovic, the Swiss searched for the right words.
“It’s awkward having to explain this loss because I feel like I should be doing the other press conference,” he muttered.
With two match points on his racquet at 5-3, 40-15 in the fifth that September 10 afternoon in 2011, Federer stepped up to serve it out, the 23,000-plus in attendance roaring their approval. He sent his first offering wide to the deuce court. Djokovic took a massive hack at the ball, hammering a crosscourt forehand return for a clean winner.
The stadium exploded and the Serb, sensing the pivot, raised his arms high, beckoning the crowd to finally show him some love. And they did. Federer still held another match point, of course, but when Djokovic readied for the return, he was nodding to himself, a sly grin on his face, as if he already knew the outcome. It said everything about who Novak Djokovic is: He could be facing match points, a partisan crowd pulling for his opponent, the world seemingly against him, but he wasn’t the least bit ruffled. He wasn’t about to surrender his inner-belief.
Djokovic punched the next serve back into play with a two-fisted backhand. Federer stepped in and swatted what was an easy setup, only for his forehand to find the net. You can guess the rest. The five-time champion’s opportunities had vanished, and Djokovic would go on to win, 6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5, earning a spot in his second straight US Open final.
As sometimes happens in sports, the details blur over the years. We forget that the famed Miracle on Ice against the Soviets was not the gold-medal matchup at Lake Placid in 1980—that the U.S. actually won it against Finland. Or that Babe Ruth finished his Hall of Fame career not in Yankees pinstripes, but in a Boston Braves uniform. No one really recalls the second match point of that epic Federer-Djokovic semi. They remember the Belgradian’s gamble on the first. Where did he get the temerity, the gumption to take such a risk with so much on the line?
Asked if Djokovic’s return winner was a matter of luck or merely a product of supreme confidence, Federer shot back, “Confidence? Are you kidding me? I mean, please. Look, some players grow up and play like that.…I never played that way. I believe in a hard-work’s-gonna-pay-off kinda thing.…This is very hard to understand how can you play a shot like that on match point.”
New Yorkers hadn’t seen anything like it since Bobby Thomson took Ralph Branca deep into the left field stands in 1951, the most storied home run in baseball history: The Shot Heard ‘Round the World, The Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff. With the New York Giants hosting the Brooklyn Dodgers that October at the old U-shaped Polo Grounds, Thomson belted an 0-1 offering down the left field line in the bottom of the ninth, prompting WMCA-AM announcer Russ Hodges to all but lose his mind:
“There’s a long drive...it’s gonna be, I believe...The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands! The Giants win the pennant and they’re going crazy! They’re going crazy! I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it! I do not believe it!”
Afterward, all of Brooklyn mourned, and a despondent Branca famously lay, inconsolable, face down on the steps leading up to the visitors’ clubhouse.
Federer doesn’t do inconsolable, but he was clearly at a loss given all that had just occurred. This was indeed tennis’ Shot Heard ‘Round the World, the single greatest shot in US Open history.
As Harvey Araton wrote the New York Times: “Novak Djokovic went for it. What other choice did he have?”
“If you’re playing somebody like Roger, you have to take your chances when they’re presented, otherwise you’re losing a match,” said Djokovic, who went on to win the first of his three US Open titles, defeating Rafael Nadal in final, 6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1. “He was serving for the match. He had match points, and I could easily lose. But this is what happens at this stage of a tournament when two top players meet each other.”
Ten years have somehow passed since Djokovic’s miraculous return winner in Flushing Meadows. But, like Thomson’s homer, some swings stay with you, echoing across the decades, the fans still rising to their feet.
