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Novak Djokovic withdrew from the Western & Southern Open on Monday, which means the next time he’s in action it will be when he attempts to complete a one-calendar-year Grand Slam at the US Open.
Best ranked Djokovic wrote on social media that he needs “a little more time to recover and recuperate after a rather grueling trip from Australia to Tokyo”.
He is 21-0 in the Grand Slam in 2021, winning titles at the Australian Open on hard in February, at the French Open on clay in June and at Wimbledon on turf in July. No man had even won the first three major tennis championships – let alone the four – in a season since Rod Laver’s real Grand Slam in 1969.
After Wimbledon, Djokovic traveled to the Tokyo Olympics in pursuit of a Golden Slam – a singles gold medal to accompany all four major trophies in a single season – but he failed to collect there. a medal of no color.
The 34-year-old Serb lost to Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the singles semi-final and then to Spain’s Pablo Carreño Busta in the bronze medal match.
“I just didn’t deliver yesterday and today. The level of tennis has dropped. Also because of exhaustion – mentally and physically,” Djokovic said after the latest loss. “I gave it my all, all I had left in the tank, which wasn’t so much.”
Djokovic also lost with partner Nina Stojanovic in the mixed doubles semi-final, then withdrew from the bronze medal match of that event.
The Western & Southern Open begins next weekend in Cincinnati. The main draw for the US Open begins August 30 in New York City.
Last year Djokovic won his second Western & Southern Open title; the tournament was held at Flushing Meadows, the site of the US Open, as part of a special back-to-back staging of the two hard-field events amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Djokovic wrote on Monday that he would “focus my attention and my attention on the US Open and spend more time with his family. See you in New York!”
As well as chasing what would only be the fourth one-year slam by a man – Laver did it twice in the 1960s; Don Budge did so in the 1930s – Djokovic will also be looking to win his 21st career major US Open title. This would break the 20-man bar he currently shares with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
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