Novak Djokovic marched into Arthur Ashe Stadium for his first tennis match as an Olympic champion with gleaming gold bags slung over each shoulder. It was yet another reminder of how much Djokovic cherishes his monumental achievement in Paris this summer.
But tennis moves on, and while the 24-time Grand Slam champion continues to celebrate his gold medal, another major event has already begun. Djokovic opened his US Open title defense with a solid performance, beating qualifier Radu Albot 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the second round in New York. He has now won more matches over Ashe, 78, than anyone else in history.
After his victory in Paris, Djokovic took his time to focus on the final Grand Slam tournament of the year. Unlike so many other victories, where he had to quickly regroup for the next tournament, the 37-year-old tried to celebrate what he considers his greatest achievement in a fitting manner.
After withdrawing from Canada and Cincinnati, Djokovic lingered in Paris for days to commemorate the achievement. He eventually flew to Belgrade, where he and the other Serbian medalists were greeted by tens of thousands of supporters. During his stay in the Serbian capital, drove through the streets at nightas he shook hands and kissed cheeks through the window of his car.
The US Open is Djokovic’s first hard-court event since March and only the fourth event he has played on his favoured surface this year. As he tries to find his rhythm on the surface without any hard-court preparation, the second seed has a handy draw. Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev, the last three players in the tournament to beat him at a Grand Slam, are all as far back as possible in the top half.
His first challenge on Monday was Albot, a 34-year-old Moldovan qualifier who has spent most of his career in positions 50 to 150. While Albot is a consistent and tough player, at 1.75m (5ft 9) he is undersized against the elite.
Although he began the match struggling with his first serve, Djokovic imposed himself from the start, rolling his own service games and putting constant pressure on Albot’s weak serve. Little by little, Djokovic crushed his challenger with his relentless depth and consistency from both wings and rolled to a comfortable victory.
“It’s always a challenge to start, especially when you haven’t played on this surface for five, six months, and you’ve just won an Olympic gold and you’ve played on clay,” Djokovic said. “I haven’t played any official matches before the US Open. So I expect that in the opening rounds I’ll probably be challenged a little bit more.
“Hopefully I can play better every day. The great thing about slams is that you have a day between matches where you can train, where you can really work on things and perfect your game. That’s what I think I need.
“So I’m going to go out on the practice courts tomorrow and work on the things that didn’t really work during the game and yeah, I’m going to keep striving to get better.”
Nearly three months after surgery on his knee, Djokovic has been moving extremely well. Even though he still wears a knee brace. “The knee is actually fine,” Djokovic said. “I had no problems during the whole Olympic tournament and here in the first round. Touch wood, it’s all good.”
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Djokovic will now face fellow Serbian Laslo Djere, who defeated Jan Lennard Struff in five sets on Monday. While this may seem like a straightforward matchup on paper, Djere played brilliantly and led Djokovic by two sets at last year’s US Open before the older Serb recovered to win in five sets.
“It’s great for Serbian tennis of course that two Serbian players are facing each other,” Djokovic said. “It’s a guaranteed third round for one of the Serbian guys. Hopefully I’ll be there, but Djokovic is a guy who really enjoys playing on a big stage.”
Now that he is essentially done with tennis and has won all the major trophies that come with it, the question is how Djokovic will continue to motivate himself with no one and nothing to chase. As he begins his quest for a record 25 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic insists that nothing has changed.
“People asked me, ‘Now that you’ve won everything with the gold medal, what else is there to win?’ I still have the drive, I still have the competitive spirit,” Djokovic said. “I still want to make more history and enjoy the tour. I still hope to inspire a lot of young people to watch tennis, to play tennis.”