For Novak Djokovic, there are almost no potentially dangerous opponents left at the US Open

The third day of the US Open, which continues in New York, was marked by another surprise in the men’s singles. One after another, in the 1/32 finals, two tennis players from the top ten were defeated – Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and last year’s finalist Norwegian Kasper Ruud. Thus, in the lower half of the bracket, where 36-year-old Serb Novak Djokovic is the favorite, there are almost no truly dangerous opponents left for him.

Wednesday’s first surprise at the US Open was the fiasco of Stefanos Tsitsipas. The seventh number of the world ranking in the 1/32 finals lost to the debutant of this tournament, the Swiss Dominik Stricker, who at the age of 21 had never made it to the top hundred. There was a big struggle in this match, in the fourth set Tsitsipas led 5:3, but he failed to bring the matter to victory. The result is 5:7, 7:6 (7:2), 7:6 (7:5), 6:7 (6:8), 3:6 in four hours and four minutes.

The US Open remains a failed major for the Greek, where he has never gone beyond the third round. It does not matter for Tsitsipas and the entire current season.

A stormy romance with the former second racket of the world Spaniard Paula Badosa, which is richly illustrated on social networks, was superimposed on fundamental changes in the training process. The current US Open has become the first Grand Slam tournament in which the 25-year-old tennis player is not accompanied by either his mother or father, who is still considered his official coach, and the Australian Mark Philippoussis, who has been collaborating with Tsitsipus for more than a season, is still unable to reverse the unpleasant trend.

World No. 5 Kasper Ruud was eliminated from the fight on the same Grandstand court, the third largest arena of the National Tennis Center, but in the evening. His opponent was Zhang Zhizhen, who also needed five games. Although the Norwegian is last year’s US Open finalist, and in June he reached the decisive stage of Roland Garros for the second time in a row, where, by the way, in the third round he confidently outplayed the progressing Chinese training in Australia and France, this result cannot be called a loud sensation. Returning to the clay in July after the end of the grass season, Ruud flunked the American series and will now move to the bottom of the top ten in the rankings, making it much more difficult for himself to get to the final tournament in Turin.

The failures of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Kasper Ruud were far from the only defeats of the seeded players in the lower part of the bracket, where Serb Novak Djokovic is considered the favorite.

Earlier, in the first round, the Dane Holger Rune (fourth in the world), whose decline in results is largely due to injury, and the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (15th), who, after last year’s finish in sixth place in the Association’s rating, dropped out of the fight. professional tennis players (ATP) this season risks remaining outside the top 50. Thus, the number of potential status opponents of the 36-year-old three-time US Open champion on the way to the final was reduced to a minimum. These are two Americans who close the top ten, but have never beaten him yet – Taylor Fritz, whom Djokovic can reach in the quarterfinals, and potential semi-finalist Francis Tiafoe.

The famous Serb himself, after confident victories over the Frenchman Alexander Muller and the Spaniard Bernabe Zapata Miriales, will meet in the third round with his compatriot Laszlo Jere, seeded under the 32nd number.

Overcoming one round, according to the results of the tournament, Djokovic has already guaranteed himself the title of the first racket of the world, but do not forget that the 25th Grand Slam title in itself is a great incentive for him.

In addition, it is not yet clear how many points after the US Open Djokovic will be ahead of Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and his other pursuers, including Daniil Medvedev. It largely depends on whether the outstanding artist, who has so far spent 389 weeks on the top line, will be able to achieve more than anyone else this year this year, which until recently seemed fantastic 400 weeks.

Meanwhile, the last of the Russians in the bottom half of the bracket, Aslan Karatsev, passed Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena, knocking out Holger Rune at the start. Having reached the third round in the majors for the first time in the last year and a half, Karatsev will meet there with the dangerous 20-year-old American left-hander Ben Shelton, who stands out for his non-standard game, reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in January and is ranked 47th, exactly 30 positions higher than the Russian.

Evgeny Fedyakov