The crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium saw something they haven’t seen before on Wednesday night.
Looking winded in the Flushing heat stood a wavering Novak Djokovic.
In just 90 minutes, the second-round match against Laslo Djere had only completed 14 games.
Fans watched the defending U.S. Open champion take several measures to battle the heat during the changeovers, using ice across his shoulders, changing shirts, and also getting a massage from a trainer on his rib cage after appearing disheveled.
Nevertheless, no mid-match retire came from the world No. 2, but rather from his fellow Serbian due to an injury for a 6-4, 6-4, 2-0 walkover in two hours and 16 minutes.
In the second set, Djere was out-serving Djokovic, who only had 47 percent of first serves in play and recorded eight double-faults. However, during the seventh game, Djokovic rallied to just trail 4-3 and eventually battled through a deuce to help him even the score.
“I haven’t really been serving well the first two matches here so I’m trying to find that rhyme and tempo on the serve,” Djokovic said after the match. “I knew coming into the match that if I don’t serve well, which was the case, I’m going to have to really grind and work on my points a lot in that and I guess caused the two sets to be played over two hours.
“In the end, it’s not the kind of finish we players or the crowd wants to see,” Djokovic said. “I think it’s probably due to the physical battle that we had in the first two sets. All in all, of course, I have to be happy with the win and happy that in the important moments I managed to play one more ball than him over the net.”
Djere, 29, threw his racket to the ground, shouting toward his box in frustration after losing his lead while dealing with what appeared to be an abdominal injury that was tended to briefly by medical staff during the changeover.
Djokovic rallied to win the second set, and after two games in the third Djere waved the white flag for a walkover.
It was expected to be a tough match after Djere dragged Djokovic to a five-set match just a year ago in the third round. The Serbian underdog also came off a five-set first round match over Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff on Monday.
Alexei Popyrin of Australia is up next for Djokovic on Friday in the Grand Slam’s third round. Djokovic has previously beaten Popyrin at the Australian Open and at Wimbledon this year — with both matches lasting four sets.
American Taylor Fritz defeated Italian Matteo Berrettini, 6-3, 7-6 (1), 6-1 to advance to the third round of the U.S. Open.
The top seeded American in the men’s draw will face Francisco Comesana of Argentina on Friday.
