On the morning of August 29 (Vietnam time), Novak Djokovic entered the second round of the 2024 US Open tennis tournament to meet his Serbian compatriot Laslo Djere.
Also at the US Open last year, Djere made Djokovic go through an extremely difficult match, lasting 5 sets in 3 hours and 48 minutes of play.
At that time, the tennis player born in 1995 unexpectedly won 2 consecutive sets with the same score of 6-4, but Djokovic affirmed his mettle when he won the next 3 sets with the difference of scores of 6-1, 6-1, 6-3.
Djokovic turns a year older this year, predicting a tougher match for him.
In reality, the difficulties were real. Just like in the opening match against Radu Albot, Djokovic 's first serve percentage was below 50% and he made 8 double faults. In contrast, Djere only made 1 double fault and had 11 aces (Djokovic only had 3).
However, scoring in important shots still favored the 37-year-old player.
Set 1 was tied at 4-4, before Djokovic took the lead and broke serve in the deciding game to win 6-4.
Right after set 1, Nole suddenly had to seek medical help and afterwards, his symptoms (difficulty breathing, unable to exert strength) made fans worried.
Many times Djokovic had to use his racket to defend himself after the ball hit.
In the second set, Djere broke serve and took the lead 3-1, then 4-2. However, it seemed that Djokovic's tired appearance fooled everyone, when he not only saved 2 breaks in game 7 but also broke his opponent's serve in the next 2 games to continue winning 6-4.
Also in set 3, it was Djere's turn to need a medical timeout, but the injury meant the 29-year-old player could only go through 2 games in set 3. Djere retired after a bad shot caused him to lose the break once again.
Djokovic is through to the third round and will face Alexei Popyrin, the Australian who beat Spain's Pedro Martinez 6-2, 6-4, 6-0. If he advances to the fourth round, Djokovic will face an American opponent, as Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe will face each other in the third round.
The men's singles round 3 has Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Casper Ruud, Grigor Dimitrov, Taylor Fritz, Lorenzo Musetti.
