Novak Djokovic produced a nearly perfect performance to match his nearly perfect season.
Returning brilliantly, swatting winners from all angles, the No. 1-ranked Djokovic beat defending champion Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-1 on Monday night in a final chock-full of lengthy, mesmerizing points to earn his first U.S. Open title and third Grand Slam trophy of 2011.
Djokovic, 24, improved to 64-2 with 10 tournament titles in a spectacular year, one of the greatest in the history of men’s tennis – or any sport.
“I’ve had an amazing year,” Djokovic said, “and it keeps going.”
Against No. 2 Nadal, Djokovic is 6-0, all in finals – three on hard courts, including Monday; two on clay; and one on grass at Wimbledon in July. Djokovic also won the Australian Open in January, and is only the sixth man in the 40-plus years of the Open era to collect three major titles in a single season.
“Obviously I’m disappointed, but you know what this guy is doing is unbelievable,” Nadal said.
Addressing Djokovic, Nadal added: “What you did this year is impossible to repeat, so well done.”
The best win-loss record in the modern era was John McEnroe’s 82-3 in 1984. Roger Federer was 81-4 in 2005. Each won two majors. Rod Laver (twice) and Don Budge are the only men to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a year.
Djokovic began a 43-match win streak when he led Serbia to its first Davis cup title in December. The streak ended with a semifinal loss to Federer in the French Open semifinals. The only other blemish on his 2011 record was a loss to Andy Murray in the Cincinnati Masters final last month; Djokovic stopped playing while trailing, citing a painful shoulder.
That was the 24-year-old Serb’s last match before Flushing Meadows. His shoulder was fine, clearly, and though he was treated by a trainer for a troublesome back three times in the late going Monday – perhaps the reason his serves slowed to the 90s mph in the fourth set – he overcame it.
With both men playing fantastic, court-covering defense, there were more than two dozen points that lasted at least 15 strokes.
Nadal won three majors in 2010, including beating Djokovic in the U.S. Open final. This rematch was more of a mismatch, with Djokovic quickly turning around the momentum after falling behind 2-0 in each of the first two sets.
Only in the third set did Djokovic really falter, getting broken while serving for the match, then being outplayed in the tiebreaker.
But in the fourth set, Djokovic broke in the opening game with a forehand winner, then cruised.
When Djokovic ended it with another forehand winner, he raised his arms, then tossed aside his racket and dropped to the court. He pulled off his shirt and threw it into the stands, then put on a dark hat with “FDNY” written on it – a nod to Sunday’s 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
