Logically thinking hardcourt being Djokovic best surface with 11 hardcourt slams you'd have thought he’d have more than 3 US opens.
what is it he doesn’t like as much asthe Australian open? Why has he lost so many finals? Court speed?Wild crowds? America as a country?
I personally think he will get 5 us opens. Win this year and then get one more.
I'm gonna make a very subtle point, which I feel too often gets overlooked in the whole 'Novak self-sabotages himself with anti vaccines again'. And that is by inviting you to have a look at this US Open record, compared to his Aussie Open record. This year is the first year that Novak is missing the US Open 'voluntarily.' Yet he's "only" won the US Open three times (Nadal has won 4! And nobody will tell you Nadal is the superior hard court player). In fact, for such an accomplished hard court player, Novak's US Open record is surprisingly weak, compared to his otherwise, and generally loftily high standards somewhere else. To know he's only won 1 more US Open than French OPen (and in the latter, this is largely due to Rafa's dominance) should surely you tell you something. And what is that, exactly? Well, he's clearly a great hard court player, but he's a great hard court player on a very SPECIFIC TYPE of hard court (the Australian, fast plexicushion surface. He is not as good on the slower, US Open style outdoor hard courts). Look at his record over the years and things happen to him at the US Open that don't really happen anywhere else. Losing to Nishikori in the semis, the year Cilic won it? Getting disqualified after hitting the line judged with the ball? Losing to Stanimal Wawrinka in the final? Losing to Murray in 2012 (when Murray lost the previous 4 grand slam finals he faced, and was wondering if he would ever win one?) His record at the US Open (and this is my overall point) is MUCH weaker than you'd expect, and we cannot say for the period 2007 to 2021 (14 years, a big sample size!) that this was due to covid or vaccine stances. So my point is this - loads of people assuming just because it's a hard court slam, Novak just has to turn up to win it. That's not really true (in Melbourne, yes, probably that's true - but not in New York). In fact, if Novak DID somehow take the vaccine and play this US Open, he would not have been my favourite to win it (Medvedev, defending champion, brillianty hard court player, world number 1 - surely would have been everybody favourite EVEN IF Novak was in the draw). So yes, I think loads of people are missing the point about Novak and US Open - who says he would have won it even if he was playing?
Novak in New York reminds me a lot of Nadal in Australia (loads of injuries in the latter stages, 5 lost finals). In fact, to me, Wimbledon feels more of a 'banker' (he just needs to turn up to win it) for Novak than US Open ever was. Quite aside from any pandemic/vaccine/covid reasons, he has surprisingly always done pretty poorly at this specific slam, and you cannot just chalk that up to Covid (that's only this year - how about the preceding 15 years, since he reached his first final here, in 2007?) I know this won't be a popular opinion but have a look at Novak's US OPen record and tell me with a straight face that it's as good as you'd expect from such a brilliant hard court player? My subtle observation on this would be 'yes, but not on EVERY type of hard court (he's much better on faster (Aussie) and indoors surfaces, than US outdoor, slower hard courts).
In fact, and I will finish on this. If it wasn't for Nadal, I feel Novak would have won MORE career french opens than US Opens (crazy, right? but he didn't have an obstacle as big as Nadal ever, over the last 15 years, in Flushing Meadows. So how do you explain him winning it ONLY three times? Surely there is something else afoot (like preferring some hard courts (Aussie) over others (Flushing Meadows), for instance) here than just vaccine stances, covid, pandemics and so forth? I definitely feel this does not get talked about enough - how Novak 'only' has 3 US Opens, considering for 15 years he showed up as the overwhelming favourite pretty much every single year - and only won it the 3 times!).
