The King and Queen of tennis, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, return to New York this month to defend their crowns at the US Open, both managing short-term elbow injuries, both determined to convince themselves and their rivals that life can only get better.
When Ana Ivanovic double-faulted for the third time, having led 2-0, to gift Williams a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory in their quarter-final of the Western & Southern Open, the former world No1 knew she was unlikely to get much closer to the best player of her era. She has won only once now in 10 attempts and could not have done a lot more here – even though the American will have private concerns about the lingering elbow problem that forced her out of Stanford just before the Rogers Cup in Toronto.
Under pressure, physical or mental, Williams finds a way, even at 33 and with a portfolio bulging with achievements beyond any of her contemporaries.
“Yes, I did a Serena,” she said courtside of a fightback that began anaemically and hit an irresistible pitch at the end. “Out of the nine times I’ve beaten her, we’ve gone three sets six times. I was happy to get through that.”
Williams has the incentive of not only retaining her title at Flushing Meadows but of completing a calendar slam for the first time in 27 years.
Djokovic, like Williams, lost in Canada, but both have rebuilt their confidence in Mason.
Any doubts Djokovic might have had about his own ailing elbow, which inhibited him in Montreal and again in the third round of the Cincinnati Masters here, shrivelled in the Ohio sunshine as he exacted revenge on Stan Wawrinka for defeat in the French Open final.
Just as important for the Serb as getting square with his friend with a 6-4, 6-1 win of military efficiency in the quarter-finals was the message his body sent to his ever-clicking brain before the US Open, which starts on 31 August. The best player in the world says he is ready to reach for his third major of the year.
It would have been a calendar slam had the Swiss not risen to extraordinary heights at Roland Garros, peaks he has not hit since and which seemed as distant as the Appalachians in next-door Kentucky on a humid afternoon.
“As I play more, spend more time on the practice court, I allow myself to get back into a rhythm,” Djokovic said.”
This was not as quick or as comprehensive a win as Roger Federer’s 54-minute demolition of Kevin Anderson the night before, when the world No3 looked every bit the world No1 he once was, but Djokovic’s opponent, for all his recent struggles, scheduled and otherwise, is a cut or two above the South African ace merchant.
It was Djokovic’s 18th win over Wawrinka in 22 contests reaching back to 2006 but he needed no reminding that Stan’s triumph in Paris was no aberration. What happened here was a collision of a focused champion against one whose high-profile distractions of recent weeks might finally be weighing him down, although he denies it.
“I’m a little bit empty, mentally, to stay at my top,” Wawrinka admitted.
“He’s not playing his best but he’s playing well enough to be there. He has had an amazing year again, losing only a few matches. He has already won two grand slams and is winning almost everything. This guy, even when he’s not playing his best, he can beat me the way he did today.”
Djokovic said: “It was the best performance I had this week, against one of my biggest rivals.”
