The US Open Djokovic Federer Comeback That Stunned the Tennis World – TBT #14
It’s September 10th, 2011. The No.1 ranked Novak Djokovic faces the No. 3 ranked Roger Federer in the semi-final of the US Open. The Serbian, Djokovic, is looking to win his first US Open title, while the Swiss tennis legend Federer has already won five US Open titles. The pair have played against each other four times this year, with Djokovic winning three out of four matches.
As the players arrived at the court, the crowd was cheering for Roger while Novak was welcomed with boos.
The chair umpire signals for the match to begin. Federer starts the match quite strongly, winning the first set of this semi-final in a tiebreak. He also wins the second set against Novak by 6-4, with barely any struggle.
Before this match, Federer had only lost one time in a Grand Slam match when he took the two first sets. However, Djokovic has no intention to lose, and he reduces Federer’s lead to 2-1 by taking the 3rd set (6-3). The 4th set is underway, and Novak is again proving why he’s the best player on the planet by playing convincingly. He wins the 4th set 6-2 and ties the match.
The 5th and final set begins. Roger is playing incredibly in this set, and it looks like Djokovic might have to wait another year for his first US Open title. Federer has the match point, leading 5-3 and 40-15. The Swiss serves the ball to Novak, and the Serbian saves the match point with a fantastic cross-court return. Federer also loses his second match point after an unsuccessful forehand. Novak reduces Roger’s lead to 5-4 in the 5th set.
Djokovic didn’t lose a single game after that one, winning the match 3-2 (6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5). This was his 1st US Open title win and the 3rd Grand Slam title in 2011.
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Featured image taken from YouTube.