U.S.Open Final 2016

The US Open final of 2016 was eagerly anticipated as it was a rematch of the 2015 French Open Final where World No.1 Novak Djokovic had seen his bid for a career slam set back by a year. It was supposed to be Djokovic’s moment of revenge, and he was set take it. He was the player who had spent least amount of time on court, due to 2 retirements and one walkover.

Djokovic vs Wawrinka! A clash of the titans! Djokovic was going for his 13th Slam(and 3rd U.S.Open) in his 21st final(second only to Roger Federer in number of finals played)and Wawrinka was going for his 3rd Slam(and 1st U.S.Open) in his 3rd final. The two of them had played 3 five setters in Australia and a 5 setter in the U.S.Open 3 years ago. Wawrinka was someone who had the game and mental strength to overcome Djokovic as his wins against enroute his first 2 titles saw him comeback from a set down to beat the world.no.1.

The first set saw Wawrinka looking tired and giving his shots a lot of air and was even broken early. Wawrinka was down 2-5 in the opener and Djokovic seemed set to just breeze through and claim his 3^rd U.S.Open title. Wawrinka awoke and raised his game. He broke back, took the set to a tie breaker which he lost.

Viewers would think that it’s all over now but Wawrinka has come back from 1 set down against Djokovic before. Losing the first set against Djokovic was like routine to Wawrinka. He had done it before and he had won the match. The second set saw Wawrinka play at a level unseen in the initial part of the 1^st set. Almost as if they were two different players who had gone out in Wawrinka’s  pink court attire. Djokovic wasn’t able to make a comeback and the tie was levelled. Possibly the memories of the French Open were playing in his mind.

Wawrinka raced ahead to a 3-0 in the third, only to lose the next 3 games. In the next game Djokovic had 3 break points but Wawrinka reeled of the next 5 in a row to win the game and the crowd was on his side. The crowd cheering for the opposition flusters Djokovic and he was broken in the 12^th game to lose the 3^rd set 5-7.

The second and third set saw Wawrinka serving well and his backhand which is considered to be the most lethal single handed backhand in the game today was on song. Djokovic was squandering break points and Wawrinka was capitalising on his break point opportunities. It was similar to the previous years final where Federer was blowing up break points and getting broken easily by Djokovic.

The fourth set started in a manner similar to the third with Wawrinka racing ahead to a 3-0 lead and having break point to go 4-0 up. A light lob by Djokovic which made Wawrinka believe the ball was out led to an even weaker return which Djokovic finished off in style and held serve.

Two medical timeouts were called for by Djokovic who could be seen limping. It was suspected to be blisters on his toes. However he gamely carried on but couldn’t pull off yet another of his superhuman comebacks. Wawrinka served for the match and on his second Championship point he won the match 6-7 4-6 5-7 3-6 and claimed the U.S.Open which was his 3^rd Grand Slam overall after his triumphs in Australia in 2014 and France in 2015. The match was error strewn but Wawrinka managed to capitalise and make the most of Djokovic’s errors

The loss meant that Djokovic had lost the summit clash in New York for the 5th time(vs Federer 2007; Nadal 2010 and 2013; Murray 2012;Wawrinka 2016) and it ended a 51 game unbeaten streak that Djokovic had at the U.S.Open after winning the 1st set. It also moved Wawrinka up to 3^rd in the ATP rankings and he improved to a 3-0 record in Grand slam finals and a 3-19 losses against world no. 1s (the 3 wins have come in grand slam finals. Big match player! Unfazed by the big stage) After the semi final Djokovic had called him a big match player and we can see why. He won all the big moments in the match and one the big prize. Questions to be raised here are that should the big 4 now be made the big 5 as Murray and Wawrinka have the same number of Slams.

Next year we can look forward to a race between Murray and Wawrinka as to who can get the career slam first. Murray needs wins in Australia and France. Wawrinka needs to win Wimbledon. Djokovic will be hungry for more and the next Grand Slam sees the return of Roger Federer to competitive Tennis.

However until now and Melbourne 2017 there is a lot of Tennis action as the ATP Tour continues with events in Tokyo, Shanghai, Basel, Paris, etc before culminating with the ATP World Tour Finals.