By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Entering the Arthur Ashe Stadium, Russian Daniil Medvedev saw a crowd chanting the name “Novak Djokovic” out loud.
The 25-year-old underdog can do nothing but prepare for the match, organize his rackets, stand up, and play.
And he did more than that.
Medvedev stunned the crowd and conquered the formidable Serbian superstar in three straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, to win the 2021 US Open Men’s singles championship and his first-ever Grand Slam title.
Apart from denying Novak Djokovic of a record-breaking 21 Grand Slam titles won, Medvedev also prevented him from a Grand Slam calendar sweep.
It was sweet payback for the Russian young star after falling at the hands of Djokovic during this year’s Australian Open Finals.
Determined to perform better from his past defeat, Medvedev wasted no time and immediately poured in his offensive arsenal which Djokovic struggled to defend.
A known great baseline defender, Djokovic wasn’t able to hold his ground against the surging power groundstrokes of Medvedev that was matched with his flawless service game.
For the first time in the tournament, the heavily-favored Djokovic faced a two sets to none deficit in front of his fans.
Djokovic tried to mount a comeback in the last set after breaking Medvedev’s service. The 5-2 score suddenly became 5-4 but it was a different story. No comebacks were scored and the Russian tennis player finally tasted his first Grand Slam trophy.
