WHAT HAPPENED: Under a closed roof Wednesday night in Arthur Ashe Stadium, as thunder rumbled through New York City, defending champion Novak Djokovic was pushed hard in Round 2 by fellow Serb Laslo Djere, a 29-year-old competing in his seventh US Open.
The first set alone took a full hour. Djokovic prevailed, 6-4, by winning every point on Djere’s serve in the 10th game.
The first game of the second set was another battle. It took 16 minutes and included four deuces as the stifling humidity took its toll. Djokovic slipped on the court a few times, including once on his braced right knee, the one that suffered a torn meniscus at the French Open back in May. But Djokovic held serve in that opening game despite his fifth double fault of the match. In the third game, Djere broke the No. 2 seed to take a 2-1 lead. Djere was soon up 4-2, and seemed nearly certain to take the set.
Djokovic rallied, however, and won the next two games to tie at 4-4 nearly two hours into the match. The mood changed significantly when Djokovic went up 4-5 and Djere took a medical time out to relieve pain in his lower left abdominal area. On the giant screen in the stadium, Djokovic could see his countryman wincing during treatment.
But Djokovic had sensed Djere was in trouble even before that. As Djokovic said in a recent “60 Minutes” interview, the 2024 Olympic champion pays attention to the smallest details—from his opponent’s body language to the way he communicates with his team, and even the way he drinks on the changeover—looking for clues of weakness.
When both men returned to the court, Djere attempted to hold serve to save the set, but he sent a forehand long on set point, putting Djokovic up 6-4, 6-4.
In the third set, Djokovic held serve for a 1-0 lead. In the next game, Djere lost every point on his own serve, crossed the net post, and retired after two hours, 16 minutes of play.
Djokovic was both relieved and sympathetic.
“It’s not what we want. It’s not what the crowd wants, to see a walkover,” Djokovic said afterwards.
“He’s such a good player, especially in these conditions. It should have been his second set, honestly. He was up 4-2. It was a big fight, over two hours for two sets. I served awful. Without a serve, you have to grind, you have to run. I had to rely on my baseline game,” Djokovic admitted.
“Of course, I have to be happy with a win and in the important moments that I played one more ball over than the net than him,” he added.
“The matches are only going to get tougher from here. But I’ll be fine. I’ll find my way as I have many times in my career.”
It was not the first time Djokovic eliminated Djere at the US Open. Their last meeting was in the third round of the 2023 US Open, when Djere won the first two sets but Djokovic prevailed in five on the way to winning his fourth US Open title.
“It’s a great privilege to be able to play again at my age,” said Djokovic, 37, “to keep pushing the bar for the younger guys and see how far I can go.”
WHAT IT MEANS: Next, Djokovic will face Australia’s Alexei Popyrin, 25, in Round 3. Djokovic has beaten him all three times they’ve faced each other, including at two Slams in 2024 (Wimbledon and the Australian Open). Each time, it went to four sets. Popyrin has never advanced past the third round at Flushing Meadows in his four previous tries, but he entered this year’s event with the confidence of his first ATP Masters 1000 title, won earlier this month in Montreal.
“His backhand and his movement has improved a lot,” Djokovic said of Popyrin. “He doesn’t make as many errors as he used to. He’s pumped. There’s no reason for him not to believe that he can put up a great performance. But I know what to expect as well.”
MATCH POINT: Djere was trying to become the first Serb to beat Djokovic since Janko Tipsarevic in 2011, and the first to ever do it at a Grand Slam.
