“Let that be a lesson to you all – nobody beats Kei Nishikori 17 times in a row.” How dearly Nishikori would have loved to offer his own variation on Vitas Gerulaitis’s immortal line after his latest forlorn attempt to confound Novak Djokovic. There was the faintest scent of an upset when Nishikori pocketed the opening set, but it has been seven long years since he last beat Djokovic and the outcome was never in serious doubt once the Serb – assisted by a fortuitous net cord – broke early in the second set.
It took the world No 1 over three and a half hours, but a 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 victory leaves him just four wins away from adding the US Open to his Australian, French and Wimbledon crowns and completing the first men’s grand slam since Rod Laver in 1969, a feat that would take him clear of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on the all-time honours list with 21 majors.
Can anything stop the Serb’s assault on the record books? Matteo Berrettini, Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev, the trio of former grand slam finalists potentially lying in wait over the final three rounds, will certainly think so. And there is no telling what havoc the pressure of vying for a place in history may wreak as the endgame nears for Djokovic.
The greatest threat may yet come from within, however, just as it did last year when Djokovic was disqualified for accidentally hitting a lineswoman in the throat with a ball. Irritation was his undoing then, and it was again a factor at 4-2 in the third set here, Djokovic allowing the crowd’s support for Nishikori to get under his skin as a 40-0 lead evaporated in the face of some spirited play from his opponent. Having stabbed a magnificent backhand winner to save a break point, the Serb gestured to his ear, demanding appreciation for his efforts. When a dipping forehand forced Nishikori to volley wide he repeated the action, appearing to mouth: “I can’t hear anything.” Two consecutive double faults and a wayward forehand followed, as Djokovic gifted Nishikori the game.
In the wider context of the match, the impact was negligible. Djokovic broke back immediately to re-establish control of the set, and went on to record his 17th successive victory over Nishikori with something to spare. Yet it was a moment that offered further evidence of a predisposition to get distracted by peripheral issues. As in his opening match against the Danish teenager Holger Rune, in which he mistook chants of “Ruuuuune” for booing and later described the atmosphere as “not ideal”, he omitted his customary heart-sharing celebration. When Daren Cahill asked him at courtside afterwards if he was feeling the love from the New York crowd, who were cheering raucously by this stage, he pointedly replied: “I am now.”
“I don’t plan to have those kind of emotional moments on the court, whether good or bad,” Djokovic later explained. “It just happens in the heat of the battle, when you feel like the moment is very important, and you just want to get those things out of yourself, out of your system – try to ride on that energy wave that you create, whether it’s with yourself, whether it’s with the crowd.
“Arthur Ashe is the place where you bring the energy, that’s for sure, where you feel this kind of electric atmosphere, particularly in the matches like this, where it’s decided in a few points. The crowd was involved. It was loud. It was nice. I thrived on that.”
Thrive he did, although it is tempting to wonder how far he is using the crowd’s lukewarm response to his pursuit of history to fuel his inner fire. Up in the stands, his wife Jelena wore a T-shirt bearing the slogan: “I am with my wolf”, an allusion to an anecdote Djokovic told at Wimbledon about sheltering among wolves in the mountains as a boy during the Nato bombings of Belgrade. Those experiences, he said had imbued him with “wolf energy”, and there was certainly something lupine in the bestial roar he emitted after winning the third set.
“We all try to bring the intensity on the court because, at the end of the day, that’s why people come to see you,” said Djokovic, who will face either 21st seed Aslan Karatsev or the rising American star Jenson Brooksby in the next round. “They want to see good tennis. They want to see you involved in the match. They want to see you bring the energy.”
Having made a shaky start to his US Open campaign against the Danish teenager Holger Rune, who unexpectedly took a set off the world No 1 before cramp rendered his challenge impotent, Djokovic had looked much improved in the previous round, dismissing Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands for the loss of just seven games. But good against a player ranked 121st in the world is one thing; good against Nishikori, a former US Open finalist and world No 4, quite another.
Djokovic had routed Nishikori at the Olympics, but this was an altogether different affair. The Serb was uncharacteristically error prone in the early stages and, having squandered the chance to seize an early break, he soon suffered one himself. A change of balls brought a change of fortune for Djokovic in the eighth game, Nishikori gifting the top seed his serve as he lost his range from the baseline, but a magnificent topspin backhand lob later put Nishikori 5-4 ahead in the first-set tiebreak, giving him the platform he needed to claim his first set against the Serb in 19 attempts.
With both men striking the ball immaculately from the back of the court, Djokovic benefited from a stroke of luck in the third game, a net cord handing the Serb the initiative as Nishikori attempted to fend off the second of two break points. The match remained tightly contested, both players toiling at length to hold serve, but when Djokovic broke again at 5-3, catching Nishikori on his heels with a deep return, the die was cast.
“I knew it was not going to be easy after winning first set,” said Nishikori. “He’s very, very tough till the end. The way he plays is not an easy match for me. He was serving good towards the end. I felt good intensity from him. Maybe he’s feeling inside a lot of pressure, but I don’t know. I couldn’t see during the match.”
Elsewhere, Berrettini was pushed all the way by Winston-Salem champion Ilya Ivashka, sealing a 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory to break the Belarusian’s eight-match winning streak and set up a fourth-round appointment with German qualifier Oscar Otte, a 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 winner over Itay’s Andreas Seppi.
“I had to step up my game in order to win the match, and I did it in the fifth set,” said Berrettini, the sixth seed, who is still working his way back from the thigh injury he suffered during his run to the final at Wimbledon. “I’m really happy, because mentally and physically it wasn’t easy. I didn’t have so many hours in my legs and in my body, so I did it, and I’m really happy that I was able to do it.”
Jannik Sinner, the Italian 13th seed, survived a determined fightback from Gael Monfils to prevail 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4. “I’m very happy,” said Sinner, who will face either Alexander Zverev or Jack Sock in the last 16. “It was obviously not easy playing against him. I played well the first two sets. Also the third set I played well. Then he started to mix up a little bit the game. I started to miss a little bit, which is normal. Then I had to find myself, and try to stay focused about the present. I think that today, that was the key.”