NEW YORK, September 11. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev has lost to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in the final of the US Open tennis championship held in New York.
The match ended 6:3, 7:6 (7:5), 6:3 in favor of Djokovic, the second seed of the tournament; Medvedev was seeded third.
Djokovic won the US Open for the fourth time, having previously won the tournament in 2011, 2015 and 2018. The Serb won his 24th Grand Slam tournament, tying him with Australia's Margaret Court. Djokovic holds the record for men's Grand Slam victories, with Spaniard Rafael Nadal (22), who has not played since January due to injury, next in line.
Medvedev played in his fifth Grand Slam final, setting a record among Russian tennis players for the number of appearances in Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournaments at this level. In 2021, Medvedev lost to Djokovic in the Australian Open final, but then came back to beat him in the US Open final. In 2019 and 2023, he lost to Nadal in the US Open and Australian Open finals, respectively. Previously, Marat Safin was the record-holder among Russians for the number of Grand Slam finals with four under his belt.
Djokovic won 27 out of 28 matches at Grand Slam tournaments this year, with the Serb's only defeat coming in the Wimbledon final against Spain's Carlos Alcaraz. The tennis player reached the finals of all Grand Slam tournaments in one season for the third time in his career, having previously done so in 2015 and 2021. In the first case, he lost to Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka in the final of the French Open, while in the second case he failed to beat Medvedev in the final of the US Open.
Last season, the Serbian tennis player did not compete in the US due to his refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Medvedev vs Djokovic
Medvedev, 27, ranks third in the ATP rating. The Russian tennis star was ranked No. 1 in the world for 16 weeks in 2022. Altogether, he has won 20 ATP-sponsored tournaments, six of them during the current season. His best Grand Slam tournament result was in 2021, when he won the US Open. Medvedev won the ATP Cup and Davis Cup the same year as the part of the Russian team.
Djokovic, 36, is the No. 2 racket in the world. He now has a total of 96 wins at ATP tournaments. At the end of the US Open, Djokovic will regain the status as No. 1 racket in the world. In total, the Serb has led the world rankings for a record 389 weeks. The athlete was a bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a Davis Cup winner in 2010.
US Open matches are played on a hard surface court. Tournament winners are eligible for a purse of $65 mln. In 2022, Spain’s Alcaraz took the prize. The last player to defend his title at the tournament was Switzerland’s Roger Federer, who won the US Open for four years straight in 2004-2008. Among Russian players, Safin also won the tournament in 2000.
ATP ratings update
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has updated its rating of tennis players, according to the list published on the ATP website.
The rating was topped by Serbian Novak Djokovic, who won the US Open. Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz dropped to second place, while Russian Daniil Medvedev retained his third-place rank in the rating. Russia’s Andrey Rublev has jumped from eighth to sixth place, while fellow Russian player Karen Khachanov dropped four places, now ranked 15th. Among other Russian players, Roman Safiullin moved up from 60th to 56th, while Aslan Karatsev rose from 77th to 63rd place, and Alexander Shevchenko fell slightly from the 83rd spot to the 86th.