{"id":17455,"date":"2025-08-25T06:04:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=17455"},"modified":"2025-08-25T06:04:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:04:03","slug":"djokovic-voices-physical-concerns-after-us-open-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=17455","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic voices physical concerns after US Open win"},"content":{"rendered":"
Novak Djokovic fears his lack of physical conditioning may come back to haunt him as he chases a record 25th Grand Slam singles title at the US Open.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old Serbian superstar made a winning start to his latest tilt at glory on Sunday, defeating US teenager Learner Tien 6-1, 7-6 (7\/3), 6-2 in 2hr 25min on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.<\/p>\n

But Djokovic, who needed a lengthy medical timeout to treat a blister on his right foot between the second and third sets, admitted afterwards he was worried by a sudden loss of stamina during the second set.<\/p>\n

“I started great — just over 20 minutes, first set, I felt really good,” Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

“Then some long games to start the second set… I really was surprised how bad I was feeling in the second physically.<\/p>\n

“We had long exchanges, but also, I kind of dropped my level and made a lot of unforced errors and kind of got him back into the match.<\/p>\n

“There are positives but also things that hopefully won’t happen in terms of how I felt on the court physically in the second set<\/p>\n

“It’s slightly a concern. I don’t know. I don’t have any injury or anything. I just struggled a lot to stay in long exchanges and recover after points.”<\/p>\n

Djokovic has not played since his defeat in the semi-finals at Wimbledon last month, skipping ATP Masters events in Toronto and Cincinnati to focus all his energy on the US Open.<\/p>\n

While there were a few signs of rustiness at times on Sunday, Djokovic also laced his performance with flashes of the brilliance that has been his calling card throughout a glittering career.<\/p>\n

Djokovic looked to be a man in a hurry in a scorching start, rattling off winners to take the first set 6-1.<\/p>\n

Tien was given hope in a laboured second set from Djokovic, but the 19-year-old American could not convert a break point that would have made it one set all.<\/p>\n

Instead, Djokovic held serve to make it 5-5 in the second set and reasserted himself to claim the second-set tie break, attacking the net cleverly and using some sublime variation to pull Tien all over the court.<\/p>\n

Djokovic paused for a medical timeout for treatment to his right foot before the third set got under way.<\/p>\n

The rest appeared to give Djokovic a jolt of energy and he sprinted into a 5-1 lead to leave Tien reeling.<\/p>\n

Tien did well to save a match point on Djokovic’s serve before breaking for 5-2.<\/p>\n

But the respite was short-lived as Djokovic again responded emphatically, breaking back immediately to wrap up victory.<\/p>\n

“I wish I had Learner Tien’s age — when you come to the late 30s it’s about learning how to preserve the energy for what matters,” Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

“I still have the flair, I still have the drive, and you guys give me the energy. Hopefully I can keep it going,” he told the crowd.<\/p>\n

Djokovic will face US qualifier Zachary Svajda in the second round.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic fears his lack of physical conditioning may come back to haunt him as he chases a record 25th Grand Slam singles title at the US Open. The 38-year-old Serbian superstar made a winning start to his latest tilt at glory on Sunday, defeating US teenager Learner Tien 6-1, 7-6 (7\/3), 6-2 in 2hr […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}