Djokovic assesses first round victory: “It was a solid start”

World No 2 Novak Djokovic looked in solid form vs Radu Albot, capping off the day’s action with a 6-2 6-2 6-4 victory. The defending champion got his quest underway for a record-breaking 25th major, overtaking Margaret Court’s shared all-time singles record, on Monday night by claiming yet another place in the record books. The Serbian became the first male player to have 78 match victories on Arthur Ashe stadium to his name, and looked like he had never left since his title-winning run 12 months ago.

Djokovic spoke to the media following the match, with his press conference beginning after midnight on Tuesday:

“I think it was a solid start. Look, I struggled with my serve and the rhythm on certain shots. Overall from the back of the court I thought I played pretty well. It’s always challenging to start, particularly when you haven’t played on this surface for five, six months and coming off an Olympic gold and playing on clay. I haven’t had any official matches before US Open. So I’m expecting to be probably challenged a little bit more in the opening rounds.”

I’m expecting to be probably challenged a little bit more in the opening rounds

Djokovic on his lack of hard court matches

The 24-time major champion, while solid overall, conceded 40 unforced errors vs Albot, produced 10 doubles faults, and only made 47% of his first serves – quite a low figure for the legend’s standards. However, as he acknowledged, the defending champion has not played a professional match on a hard court since Indian Wells nearly six months ago, having spent the last five weeks preparing for, and participating in, the Paris Olympic games which was held on clay.

The gold medalist’s opening round finished just five minutes shy of midnight, something which Djokovic hopes to avoid going forward:

“Well, I don’t think that aging helps really staying so late and playing very late. I can feel, you know, my batteries are low now. I’m shutting down. But it’s been a long wait, to be honest. I thought I’m going
to go out on the court, like, 8:15 p.m. because Stephens was 6-Love, 3-Love serving and then all of a sudden it turns out to be a two and a half hour match or whatever. Yeah, you just have to accept it, I guess. Those are the instances where you’re scheduled second after 7:00, 7:30 or whatever the start was. I like playing night matches, but I love to start first. So, yeah, hopefully I get more chances to play at night and am scheduled first so we can start at a more decent time and finish at a more decent time.”

hopefully I get more chances to play at night and am scheduled first so we can start at a more decent time

The 24-time major champion on Monday’s late night finish

Djokovic is scheduled to play Laslo Djere on Wednesday in round two of the US Open, a repeat of last year’s third round clash where the lower ranked Serb claimed the first two sets, before the eventual champion fought back to book a place in the last 16.

Speaking about his next round vs Djere, who toughed out a fifth set win vs Jan-Lennard Struff, the world No 2 stated:

“It’s great I mean for Serbian tennis, obviously, that two Serbian players are facing each other. It’s a guaranteed third round for one of the Serbian guys. Hopefully it’s going to be me, but Djere is a guy that really likes playing on a big stage. I think he also loves the conditions here. It’s a bit quicker. Ball stays low. He has a very flat backhand particularly and very good serve, great return. He’s physically as fit as
anybody. I remember very well our match. It was a very tough match. I’m going to try to analyze that and hopefully do some things even better than I did last year.”

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