Novak Djokovic delivers ‘awful’ verdict on aspect of his game as he overcomes US Open injury scare

Novak Djokovic described his serving performance in his second round win against Laslo Djere at the 2024 US Open as “awful” and also received treatment for a physical issue during the match.

The Serbian assessed that he had not served well in either of his first two matches in New York, but expressed confidence he will find his way as he has “many times” in his career.

Djokovic was leading Djere 6-4, 6-4, 2-0 on Arthur Ashe Stadium when the world No 109 was forced to retire due to an injury.

The 37-year-old landed just 47% of his first serves in a physical, late-night contest against his fellow Serb, with the first two sets lasting over two hours.

The 24-time major champion won a more than healthy 79% of the points when he did make his first serve, but was down at 49% for second serve points won and hit eight double faults.

In his in-court interview with Nick Kyrgios after beating Djere, Djokovic delivered a candid assessment of how poorly he had served.

“I served awful,” he admitted. “Playing without a serve, you have to grind and run. Not everyone serves like you (Kyrgios). I guess I have to rely on my baseline game.”

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Djokovic also made only 47% of his first serves and hit 10 double faults in his straight-set opening round win over Radu Albot.

In his press conference after his second round victory, Djokovic addressed the problems with his serve and highlighted how it can lead to matches becoming much more of a grind.

“I haven’t been really serving well first two matches here, so I’m still kind of trying to find that rhythm and tempo on the serve,” the world No 2 said.

“If you don’t have a good percentage of first serves in, you have to work for your points, particularly against a player like Djere who is really good from baseline from both ends, forehand and backhand, just a very solid player. Likes to attack but he’s also comfortable defending and last year I remember we had a five-setter.

“So I knew coming into the match that if I don’t serve well, which was the case, that I’m going to have to really grind and work for my points a lot and that’s what I guess caused the two sets to be played over two hours.

“(On Djere’s retirement) In the end, not the kind of finish that we players or crowd wants to see, but I think it’s probably due to that physical battle that we had in the opening two sets.

“All in all, I think of course I have to be happy with the win and happy that in important moments I managed to play one ball more than him over the net, I guess find the right shots or anticipate well as I did on the set point in the second set — was lucky that he missed that forehand, was quite easy forehand.

“But that’s tennis, when you are fighting and playing long rallies and then the pressure mounts, when you have that important point that you have to play the shots that normally nine out of 10 you wouldn’t miss, and then you miss.

“The matches are only gonna get tougher from here, I know that. But you know, I’m fine. I’ll find my way as I have done many times in my career.”

Against Djere, Djokovic looked in discomfort as he received treatment on his abdominal area between the first and second sets.

The tennis icon entered the tournament with injury concerns after cutting short a practice session with Holger Rune due to physical issues.

“On Friday, I practised for an hour on the outside courts [with Rune], and then I had some issues, so I didn’t practise any further at Arthur Ashe,” he explained to Serbian media before his first round match.

“Today (on Saturday), it wasn’t much of an issue, so I practised with [Stan] Wawrinka both on the outside court and on Ashe, where we get an hour per day. So far, everything is fine, it’s nothing serious in the wider context.”

Djokovic will face Montreal Masters winner and world No 28 Alexei Popyrin in the third round at Flushing Meadows