The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

How the Joker beat the Fed Express at Flushing Meadows

Will we see Novak Djokovic face Andy Murray at the Australian Open final again? (Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images )
Expert
14th September, 2015
2

After exactly three hours of some breath-taking tennis in yesterday’s US Open final at Flushing Meadows, world number one Novak Djokovic and number two Roger Federer had won 130 points apiece.

But Djokovic led 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 3-2.

Six minutes later Djokovic led 5-2 in the fourth and was serving for the match, it was all over bar the shouting.

But never sell the fighting spirit of Federer short.

He broke Djokovic, held serve for 4-5, and led Djokovic 15-40 on his serve for five-all.

From there anything could have happened – Federer was on a roll, Djokovic stunned he had had his second US Open, and 10th Grand Slam, safely in his bag and was letting it slip.

But that’s what Federer did in the end. He blew the 15-40 lead and the US Open belonged to Novak Djokovic. And it was lost break points and unforced errors that cost Federer so dearly.

The Swiss maestro converted only four of 23 break points (17%), and made 54 unforced errors to just 37 from the Serb. At such an elite level, and with the standard so high, the Federer stats were way out of character.

Advertisement

But in every other stat, bar points won, Federer was the superior player.

First serve: Federer 64%, Djokovic 62%.
Aces: Federer 11, Djokovic 3.
Double faults: Federer 5, Djokovic 5.
Winners: Federer 56, Djokovic 35.
Points won: Djokovic 147, Federer 145.

Two other stats make interesting reading. Federer ran 10,962 feet in the 190 minutes, Djokovic 10,745. Federer ran an average 37.5 feet per point, Djokovic 36.8.

Djokovic and Federer have now met head-to-head 42 times for 21 wins each. Federer leads 16-15 on hardcourt, it’s four-all on clay, with Djokovic leading 2-1 on grass.

The Djokovic win means he joins American Bill Tilden to share seventh place on the all-time Grand Slam champions’ list.

17 – Roger Federer
14 – Pete Sampras (who never won the French Open)
14 – Rafael Nadal
12 – Roy Emerson
11 – Rod Laver (only winner of two Grand Slams in 1962 and 1969)
11 – Bjorn Borg (who never won the Australian or French)
10 – Bill Tilden (who never won the Australian or French)
10 – Novak Djokovic (who has yet to win the French)

Other notables who have missed the career Grand Slams:

Advertisement

8 – Ken Rosewall (never won Wimbledon, but reached four finals)
8 – Jimmy Connors (never won the French)
7 – Rene Leconte (never won the Australian)
7 – Henri Cochet (never won the Australian)
7 – John Newcombe (never won the French)
7 – Mats Wilander (never won Wimbledon)
6 – Jack Crawford (never won the US)
6 – Stefan Edberg (never won the French)
6 – Frank Sedgman (never won the French)
6 – Tony Trabert (never won the Australian)

close