Novak Djokovic has once again suggested that he is not 100% fit after his win over Taylor Fritz at the US Open, but he has vowed that he is \u201cnot going with the white flag on the court\u201d when he faces Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-final.<\/p>\n
The 24-time Grand Slam has struggled with several niggles \u2013 from blisters to a back injury to a shoulder problem \u2013 so far at the hard-court major, but he is safely into the last four after he maintained his unblemished record against Fritz.<\/p>\n
Djokovic<\/a> increased his lead in their head-to-head rivalry to 11-0, but he did drop a set against the American before winning 6-3, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.<\/p>\n Aged 38, the former world No 1 would have loved to wrap it up in three sets, but he acknowledged that Fritz was the better player for most of the second and third sets and, in the end, he was happy to get the win.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an incredibly close match. It was really anybody\u2019s match. I thought I was lucky to really save crucial breakpoints in the second set,\u201d the four-time US Open<\/a> champion said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor most of the second and third set he was the better player. In these kinds of matches, few points decide the winner. It was fortunately coming on my side, particularly at the end of the fourth set.\u201d<\/p>\n He will return to action on Friday for the semi-final against Alcaraz in what will be their ninth career meeting<\/a>. The veteran leads their H2H 5-3 with his two most recent wins coming at this year\u2019s Australian Open and the gold medal match of the 2024 Paris Olympics last August.<\/p>\n Djokovic, though, is starting to feel his age.<\/p>\n \u201cGood thing about the schedule is now that I have two days without a match, so that helps a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t feel very fresh at the moment. But hopefully in two days will be different.<\/p>\n The seventh seed added: \u201cIt\u2019s not going to get easier, I tell you that. But look, as I said, I\u2019m going to try to take one day at a time, really take care of my body, try to relax and recover.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next couple of days is really key for me to really get my body in shape and ready to battle five sets if it\u2019s needed. So I just would really love that, would love to be fit enough to play and to play, you know, potentially five sets with Carlos. And I know that my best tennis is going to be required, but I rise to the occasion.<\/p>\n \u201cNormally, I like to play the big matches on a big stage. It\u2019s just that I\u2019m not really sure how the body is going to feel in the next few days. But, you know, I\u2019m going to do my very best with my team to be fit for that. There\u2019s going to be a lot of running involved, that\u2019s for sure. I mean, there\u2019s not going to be short points.\u201d<\/p>\n Patrick Mouratoglou questions Novak Djokovic\u2019s US Open motivation and a key decision he made<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic retirement theory floated by former world No 1 \u2013 and it\u2019s not what you might expect<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Alcaraz and defending US Open champion Jannik Sinner<\/a> were the two pre-tournament favourites and many believe they will meet in the final at Flushing Meadows. Should the form book hold, it will be their third consecutive Grand Slam final as Alcaraz won their showpiece match at Roland Garros before Sinner turned the tables at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n Djokovic, though, wants to spoil the party.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t need to spend words about two of them. You know, we know that they\u2019re two best players in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u2019s probably expecting and anticipating the finals between two of them. I\u2019m going to try to, you know, mess up the plans of most of the people and let\u2019s see, you know, Sinner still has to win a couple of matches to get to the finals, but they are playing definitely the best tennis of any player here.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve been the dominant force since the beginning of the tournament, but, you know, I definitely am not going with the white flag on the court. I don\u2019t think anybody does, really, when they play them, but particularly not me.<\/p>\n \u201cI put myself in another semi-final of a Grand Slam this year. I\u2019ve been very consistent, mostly consistent on the Slams this season, and that\u2019s what I said at the beginning of the year, where I would like to perform my best tennis and make the best results.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic ready to ruin Carlos Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner \u2018plans\u2019 despite \u2018not feeling fresh\u2019 confession<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic has once again suggested that he is not 100% fit after his win over Taylor Fritz at the US Open, but he has vowed that he is \u201cnot going with the white flag on the court\u201d when he faces Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-final. The 24-time Grand Slam has struggled with several niggles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Novak Djokovic News<\/h2>\n