US Open: Daniil Medvedev stuns Novak Djokovic

Danii Medvedev denied Novak Djokovic his 21st Grand Slam after beating the Serb 6-4 6-4 6-4 in the US Open 2021 Final.

Danii Medvedev won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open 2021.

He stopped Novak Djokovic from winning all 4 Grand Slams in one season.

The World No.2 beat the World No.1 6-4 6-4 6-4 in the final. It is his 13th career title.

Djokovic denied history

If Novak Djokovic had won the final, he would have surely been regarded as the greatest male player of all time.

After overtaking Roger Federer for the most weeks as World No.1, the Serbian clearly had the Swiss’ Grand Slam record in mind.

Now after losing the US Open final, it is still a tie between Djokovic, Federer and Nadal at 20 Grand Slams each.

More importantly, he also had a chance to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win all 4 Grand Slams in the same season i.e. Calendar Year Grand Slam.

This would have been the second time in his career that he had held all 4 Grand Slams at the same time, after winning all the Grand Slams from 2015 Wimbledon till the 2016 French Open.

It has been a pretty memorable season for the Serb.

At Roland Garros, he became the first player since Rod Laver to win all 4 Grand Slams multiple times. At Wimbledon, he equaled Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s Grand Slam record.

Despite the heartbreak of the Olympics, he quickly picked up his form on the hard courts at New York. However, he couldn’t get over the line.

The US Open isn’t the most ideal slam for Djokovic.

Since making his first final in New York in 2007, he has lost 6 finals there.

Last season, he got disqualified for hitting a lines woman.

Even though all the statistics are still in his favor in the GOAT debate, it remains to be seen what the future goals are for the World No.1 

Medvedev becomes third time lucky 

It was the first Grand Slam title for Danii Medvedev.

In the build up to his second US Open final, Medvedev was optimistic that he can be third time lucky in Grand Slam finals.

And so he was.

Medvedev also made it to the Australian Open final earlier this year, where he lost to Djokovic. 

Now with the US Open win, we can definitely see the reasons why he is the World No.2.

Since impressing Federer in the second-round match in Shanghai 2018, Medvedev has taken a giant leap in his tennis career.

The Russian has enjoyed great hard court form since 2019.

Despite losing the US Open final to Rafael Nadal, Medvedev won the Cincinnati and Shanghai Masters.

In 2020, he won his first World Tour Finals title, beating Dominic Thiem in the final. 

Despite all his success in the Masters 1000 level and the Year-End Championships, a win in one of the four Grand Slams remained elusive.

Now with his first Grand Slam title, we can safely say that this could be one of many for the Russian.