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Novak Djokovic is knocking on the door of tennis history
By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist
Editor's note: Novak Djokovic advanced to the US Open final with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Alexander Zverev on Friday night. He'll face Daniil Medvedev in the final on Sunday.
On Monday at Arthur Ashe Stadium, 20-year-old American Jenson Brooksby swung for the lines and hit them, swung for outright winners and hit those, too, swung with the kind of fearless abandon that makes a New York crowd fall in love with someone. And they did.
The stadium was rocking as Brooksby surged to a 6-1 romp in the first set of his round of 16 matchup, with the biggest crowd of this year’s US Open roaring him on to bigger and better, or more of the same.
It was fun while it lasted.
It was never going to continue because when it’s Novak Djokovic on the other side of the net, typically, it never does.
"Leading up to it, I 100 percent believed I could win," Brooksby told reporters. "Unfortunately, yeah, it got a little tougher."
Brooksby was spirited and tenacious and has a ton of talent. For a while, he had his moment. The problem is, this year in particular, Djokovic has every moment. Once things turned, with a break of serve early in the second set, they had already turned for good, and the world No. 1 strolled to a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory that secured his place in the quarterfinals.
When it comes to the biggest matches on the biggest stages, little moments are all anyone is getting against Djokovic. Truthfully, Brooksby’s lasted longer than most.
Djokovic stands on the cusp now of not just making tennis history but also owning it, as long as something totally unexpected doesn’t happen between now and Sunday. It is virtually impossible to think of a scenario in which an athlete is in position to accomplish something so timelessly difficult, yet it seems so implausible that he could fail to get there.
If Djokovic wins this tournament, he will become the first male tennis player since 1969 to clinch the calendar Grand Slam, collecting all four majors in a year. On the women’s side, Steffi Graf did it in 1988 while adding an Olympic title the same year.
Rod Laver was the last man to accomplish the feat, and since then, a litany of greats have been unable to replicate it, from Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras to, of course, present-day icons Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Djokovic is moving into truly unique air now. Three more matches, and he’ll be the all-time Slams record holder, with 21. He’s currently tied at 20 with Federer and Nadal, neither of whom is in New York due to injuries that have indeterminate resolution dates.
Getting to 21 would represent a near-farcical number. Sampras was the previous Slams leader, with 14, before the modern trio took hold. The great John McEnroe won seven major singles titles in a five-year span from 1979 to ‘84. Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl each had eight major singles titles, with most coming in the mid-’80s.
This is sports, so obviously, anything can happen, but this one has the feel of being in the books already. FOX Bet has Djokovic at -150 to win at Flushing Meadows for the fourth time, with second seed Daniil Medvedev the nearest contender at +187.
On paper, at least, some challenges await. Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini is up next in the quarters, then a possible semifinal showdown with world No. 4 Alexander Zverev followed, maybe, by Medvedev. The sense is, though, that the longer an event goes on, the stronger Djokovic gets, with his impenetrability from the baseline sapping the strength of his rivals, sooner or later.
"First he takes your legs," former world No. 1 Andy Roddick tweeted. "Then he takes your soul."
Djokovic has even seemed to develop a mental edge over Federer and Nadal in recent years, and he most certainly has one on the upcoming crop of youngsters.
"Most of the opponents that you get to play, if you’re at the top of the game, you know that already before coming into the match, you have a mental advantage," he told ESPN.
Djokovic hasn’t always been a fan favorite in New York, but it’s starting to happen now, with the US Open crowd warming up to him, appreciative of what he’s shooting to achieve and its rarity. The fans are aware, perhaps, that as loved as Federer and Nadal have always been, this is the guy who will likely be considered by future generations as the greatest to ever play the game.
In an entertaining twist, Djokovic has adopted the wolf as his spirit animal, channeling his inner fight. His wife, Jelena, has been sporting an "I run with the wolf" T-shirt on the sideline, and Djokovic has spoken about how the concept brings him peace and reminds him of his childhood in the Serbian mountains.
It might be something that is really helping, or it might just be for public benefit, for Djokovic likes to put on a show to break up the boredom of collecting all these titles, and you never know what to take at face value and what not to.
The on-court performances, though, are nothing but real, and they are good enough to withstand whatever obstacle poses itself in the moment, be it an upstart challenger with nothing to lose or the pressing weight of all that history.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
