US Open: Popyrin Upsets Defending Champion Djokovic – Tennis Panorama

The Australian used his big forehand and powerful serve to get the best of the 24-time major winner from Serbia.

 “He wasn’t playing his best tennis,” Popyrin said. “I was waiting for him to kind of step up. I felt like he did in the third set. But my level went down. I didn’t make too many first serves.

“Yeah, and also there is countless times when he’s come back from two sets to love down, and I didn’t want to be one of those moments where Novak kind of stepped up and came back from two sets to love down. That was going through my head.

“It was kind of extra motivation for me not to do that and to win that fourth set. Kind of had to pump myself up, swear at myself a few times to kind of, yeah, to kind of get back into the mood of winning.

“I managed to do that, and that was amazing.”

“Congratulations to him and his team,” Djokovic said in his news conference. “He definitely played better and deserved to win today. I mean, on my end, honestly, the way I felt and the way I played from the beginning of this tournament, third round is a success. I mean, I have played some of the worst tennis I have ever played, honestly, serving by far the worst ever.

“So, yeah, if you play on a quick surface like this without, you know, the serve, without ability to win free points there, very low first-serve percentage, many double faults, then you can’t win. You can’t win, especially against the guys who are in form like Alexei who is serving big, puts a lot of pressure on your service game. Yeah, it was just an awful match for me.”

“I spent a lot of energy winning the gold, and I did arrive to New York just not feeling fresh mentally and physically,” admitted Djokovic.

“But because it’s US Open, you know, I gave it a shot and I tried my best. I mean, I didn’t have any physical issues. I just felt out of gas, you know, and you could see that with the way I played.

“Just from the very beginning, from the first match, I just didn’t find myself at all on this court. It’s all I can say, you know. You know, life moves on. I mean, yeah, just try and recalibrate and look for what’s next.”

Coming into the US Open, Popyrin won her first master title in Montreal. “For me, winning Montreal was way bigger than today, just because it’s a title, and it’s a Masters 1000 title. That felt unbelievable,” he said.

“Today was something that I kind of thought I could do, you know? Winning a Masters 1000 was not something that, you know, kind of crossed my head.

“But my two experiences against him earlier this year in Australian Open and Wimbledon kind of gave me the confidence to go out there tonight and believe that I could win and actually do it and believe it.

“So when I did it, it kind of felt that kind of proved me right, proved what I was thinking right. Yeah, it wasn’t something that, you know, was unbelievable like Montreal, for example.”

 ‘I said earlier this week that for me the most important part was to take that confidence from Montreal and bring it into this week, but not only this week but hopefully for years to come.”

Djokovic tried to get into Popyrin’s game but failed.  “I tried so many things, and sometimes that’s an issue, you know, is that you move away from the basics that work. Then you just lose the basics. You lose the foundation. You lose the movement, the timing, the rhythm, the tempo, everything, whether it’s a serve or any other shot.

“It was just really a big struggle mentally for me to play these three matches here, because I wasn’t playing even close to my best. So, you know, it’s not good to be in that kind of state where you feel okay physically, and of course you’re motivated because it’s a Grand Slam, but you just are not able to find your game. That’s it. The game is falling apart, and I guess you have to accept that tournaments like this happen.

“Yeah, you could argue that it’s because of the Olympics, but I don’t know. I don’t want to analyze that right now. You know, I was just looking to really improve my game here on a daily basis, but it just didn’t happen.”

For Popyrin, he will face American Frances Tiafoe, the on Sunday for a spot in the quarterfinals.

More to follow…