Novak Djokovic makes ‘terrible’ judgement on aspect of his game after overcoming US Open injury scare

Novak Djokovic described his serve performance in his second-round win over Laslo Djere at the 2024 US Open as “terrible” and was also treated for a physical problem during the match.

The Serb admitted that he did not serve well in his first two matches in New York, but expressed confidence that he would find his way, as he has done “many times” throughout his career.

Djokovic was leading Djere 6-4, 6-4, 2-0 at Arthur Ashe Stadium when the world number 109 was forced to retire due to injury.

The 37-year-old landed only 47% of his first serves in a physical match against his Serbian compatriot that lasted late into the night, with the first two sets lasting over two hours.

The 24-time major champion won a more than healthy 79% of points when he hit his first serve, but was 49% of points won on his second serve and made eight double faults.

In his court interview with Nick Kyrgios after the win against Djere, Djokovic gave a candid assessment of how bad his serve was.

“My serve was terrible,” he admitted. “When you play without serving, you have to grind and run. Not everyone serves like you (Kyrgios). I guess I have to rely on my baseline game.”

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Djokovic also hit just 47% of his first serves and made ten double faults in his straight-set first-round win over Radu Albot.

In his press conference after his second-round victory, Djokovic addressed the problems with his serve and stressed that it could make matches even more arduous.

“My serve wasn't really good in the first two games here, so I'm still trying to find the rhythm and pace for my serve,” said the world number 2.

“When you don't have a lot of good first serves, you have to work for the points, especially against a player like Djere who is really good from both sides of the baseline, forehand and backhand, just a very solid player. He likes to attack but can also defend well and last year, as I recall, we had a five-set win.

“So I knew before the match that if I didn't serve well, which was the case, I would have to really try hard and work hard for my points, and that's probably the reason why the two sets were played for over two hours.

(On Djere's retirement) Ultimately, it was not the kind of result we as players or spectators want to see, but I think that's probably because of the physical fight we had in the first two sets.

“All in all, of course, I have to be happy with the win and also happy that in the important moments I managed to play one more ball over the net than him, to find the right shots or to anticipate well, like I did on the set point in the second set – I was lucky that he missed the forehand, it was a pretty easy forehand.

“But that's tennis: you fight and play long rallies, and then the pressure builds when you have that important point and you have to hit shots that you normally wouldn't miss nine times out of ten, and then you miss.

“The games are only going to get tougher from now on, I know that. But you know, I'm fine. I'm going to find my way, like I've done many times in my career.”

Djokovic looked unwell against Djere as he received treatment in his abdominal area between the first and second sets.

The tennis icon entered the tournament with injury concerns after abandoning a training session with Holger Rune due to physical problems.

“On Friday I trained for an hour on the outdoor courts [with Rune]and then I had some problems so I stopped training with Arthur Ashe,” he told Serbian media before his first-round match.

“Today (Saturday) it was not a big problem, so I trained with [Stan] Wawrinka both on the outdoor court and on Ashe, where we get one hour a day. So far everything is fine, in the wider context it is nothing serious.”

Djokovic will face Montreal Masters winner and world number 28 Alexei Popyrin in the third round at Flushing Meadows.

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