Novak Djokovic: “I’m good, as young as ever, and as strong as ever”

NEW YORK—“My team wants me to suffer on the court, so I get some more minutes,” Novak Djokovic said with a smile after his 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-3 third-round win over Cam Norrie on Friday night.

Djokovic got his minutes in: 170 of them, which felt like a lot for a contest that was only briefly competitive. That was a little more than the 151 minutes it took him to beat Zach Svajda on Wednesday. Maybe taking longer to win is a sign of progress in his coaches’ eyes.

The focus on court time and reps is understandable: Djokovic didn’t play a match between Wimbledon and the US Open. Not surprisingly, there was rust, both in his body and his strokes. During his first round, he was slowed by a mysterious case of exhaustion. After his second round, he said, “I’m not pleased with my level of tennis.”

How about the third round? Things were better, according to Djokovic.

“Still trying to find my groove and my rhythm on the court,” he said. “I think today I probably played the best I played so far in the tournament.”

If there were any doubts about Djokovic’s ability to move explosively at 38, he dispelled them in the seventh game. Norrie, serving at 3-3, 30-30, hit a ball short and came forward. He may not have thought that Djokovic would get to it in time to hit a topspin pass; if so, he was wrong. Djokovic burst forward the way he always has, and snapped a backhand pass to go up a break point. He closed the game with a deftly measured lob-smash combination. The speed was there, and so was the touch.

What wasn’t there, by the end of the first set, was the back. Djokovic twisted the wrong way late in the set, and went off court for a medical time-out. When he returned to serve for the first set at 5-4, he grimaced on a few shots, but the effect turned out to be minimal.

By then, Norrie, who was making his Arthur Ashe Stadium debut at age 30, had settled down, and his game had begun to click. He saved three break points at 3-3 in the second, and began to show off his shot-making skills, particularly with his forehand. In the second-set tiebreaker, Norrie was the better player, wining points with his serve, his volley and his forehand.

Norrie reached his peak in the first game of the third set, when he broke Djokovic with a forehand drop shot that just skimmed the tape and went for a winner. The momentum was within him, the crowd was with him, and his first win over Djokovic (in his seventh try) seemed within reach. Norrie was feeling it.

A little too much, it turned out.

At 1-0, 15-0, Norrie set up for a forehand that he normally would have rolled crosscourt. Instead, he tried to fire it down the line and landed it in the net. It was just one shot, but it seemed to bring Norrie back to reality—the reality that he couldn’t keep this up. At deuce, Norrie put the same down-the-line forehand into the net again. When he double faulted at break point, the wind had gone out of his sails. Djokovic took control from there and never gave it back.

Djokovic’s numbers were good. He had 18 aces, was 21 of 25 at net, and hit 51 winners against 31 errors.

“It was probably my best serving performance of the tournament,” he said.

Afterward, Djokovic had a message for his younger rivals.

“I’m good, as young as ever, and as strong as ever,” he said, pointing toward the camera.

It’s New York, even if you’re [not feeling it], the energy in this building just overrides it.

Happily for him, he won’t have to worry about facing an American, or an especially young opponent, in his next match. Instead of playing Frances Tiafoe, he’ll meet the man who beat him today, 35-year-old German Jan-Lennard Struff.

Someday Djokovic won’t be able to play his way into a Slam. But that day hasn’t come yet.