The world No 1 took a savvy medical time-out to unsettle Wawrinka and it nearly paid dividends, but Djokovic couldn’t convert any of his three break point chances.
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After Djokovic took the first set in a tie-break, the Swiss showed his true mettle, breaking the defending champion early in the second, third and fourth sets.
“He loves to play in the big matches”.
Despite losing out on a chance at winning his third U.S. open title, Djokovic expressed his satisfaction on winning four Grand Slams. Despite having won just one Grand Slam title, Juan Martin Del Potro garners the same shot at winning as the 14-time Grand Slam champion.
Consider this: Djokovic had been 51-0 in U.S. Open matches, and 53-2 in all finals, when taking the first set.
The Swiss third seed recovered from a set down to win 6-7 (1-7) 6-4 7-5 6-3 in NY, adding the US Open to his 2014 Australian Open and French Open success previous year.
Djokovic, blighted by physical problems throughout the US Open, was not at his brilliant best in Arthur Ashe Stadium but he was also blown away by a powerful Wawrinka display. The Serb advanced to the second round with a walkover and won both his third round and the quarterfinal when his opponents were forced to retire with injuries.
“He likes to occasionally whack the ball quite hard, and I don’t think that Novak likes that”, said Wawrinka’s coach, Magnus Norman.
For Djokovic, the priority will be to shake off various ailments he took treatment for at Flushing Meadows, including injuries to his left wrist and right elbow. All of the rest of his matches in the tournament lasted four sets.
Not bad for a guy who said his goal when he started out was to “maybe one day play a French Open”.
Then, after smacking a forehand victor to end a 20-stroke exchange, Wawrinka pointed to his temple.
After almost four hours of play, the Swiss tennis player defeated Djokovic 6-7 (1-7), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3.
Wawrinka ‘s renowned back-hand failed him in the first set he lost 7-6.
The opening three sets were fairly even affairs decided by the finest of margins but Djokovic began to struggle physically in the fourth.
“At this level of professional sport in tennis, after playing seven, eight months of the season you are not fresh. He was tougher mentally”, said Djokovic, offering two of the highest compliments a tennis player can receive from the talented Serb ranked No. 1.
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And in the wake of his success, the No 3 seed revealed he had suffered his worst-ever nerves moments before he was due on court. He had kept his cool and powered through with incredible mental stamina. Its a part of tennis history and it will always be like that, and I think its great like that.. Just the heat of the moment and importance of the match, I guess, was too strong for me at certain periods of the match.
