US OPEN

September 3, 2025

Novak Djokovic

Press Conference

N. DJOKOVIC/T. Fritz

6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Novak, congratulations. Tremendous win. Questions.

Q. Novak, I remember you said at Wimbledon that you felt that you approached a semifinal with Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz with the tank half empty. Do you feel different here in New York?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Let's see in two days' time. Good thing about the schedule is now that I have two days without a match, so that helps a lot. I don't feel very fresh at the moment, but hopefully in two days it will be different.

Q. How are you able to survive so many of those tough serve games in the first two sets? There were a lot of breakpoints. I think ten. Also, there was a lot of Love-30s, 15-30s. You were behind in a whole lot of service games.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Look, as I said on the court, he was the better player second and third set. I got really out of trouble in the second, somehow found a way to clinch that second set after serving for it 5-4. Dropped a serve, rebroke, and then I honestly wasn't -- I thought, for my standards, that I wasn't playing well. I don't know. I didn't feel the ball as well as I did feel the ball in the third round.

You know, Taylor is the kind of a player if you allow him to play, he's going to try to dictate, he's going to be aggressive, stay close to the line. He's going to take his forehands and punish you. I was just trying to survive, just trying to stay in the rally, make him play.

I think it was good for me that he wasn't making a lot of first serves in in the first couple sets. Then he raised the level of the first serve, and the first-serve percentage went up. Then, all of a sudden, it was so much more difficult for me to stay in his service games.

But then, you know, I think in important moments in the fourth I served well, mixed it up, came to the net as well. Just tried to give him a different look and waited patiently for my opportunity, and realistically I just had one game where I just had chance to break him, which was the last one. You know, the one that gave me the victory, and he gifted me with the double fault.

Yeah, I was in the rally in both of my match points prior to that. Just played too conservatively. Yeah, waited for his mistake instead of trying to take the ball early, but as I said, I didn't feel playing well. I didn't feel my shots as well as I have a few days ago.

It's one of those days where you just have to grind, you know. You just have to play with your heart and fight. That's what really gave me the win in the end.

Q. How would you describe the road ahead of you now?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, it's not going to get easier. I tell you that (smiling). Look, as I said, I'm going to try to take one day at a time. Really take care of my body. Try to relax and recover. The next couple of days is really key for me to really get my body in shape and ready to battle five sets if it's needed.

I just would really love that. Would love to be fit enough to play and to play, you know, potentially five sets with Carlos. I know that my best tennis is going to be required, but I'd rise to the occasion.

Normally I like to play the big matches on a big stage. It's just that I'm, you know, not really sure how the body is going to feel in the next few days. But, you know, I'm going to do my very best with my team to be fit for that.

There's going to be a lot of running involved, that's for sure. It's not going to be short points.

Q. How much is your assessment of what it's going to take to win this tournament, just dictated by the fact that those two guys are playing the way they're playing?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yeah, well, we don't need to spend words about two of them. We know that they are two best players in the world. Everybody is probably expecting and anticipating the finals between two of them. I'm going to try to, you know, mess up the plans of most of the people.

Let's see. You know, Sinner still has to win a couple of matches to get to the finals. But they are playing definitely the best tennis of any player here. They have been dominant force since the beginning of the tournament.

But, you know, I definitely am not going with a white flag on the court. I don't think anybody does really when they play them, but particularly not me. I put myself in another semifinals of a Grand Slam this year. I have been very consistent, most consistent on slams this season, and that's what I said at the beginning of the year, where I would like to perform my best tennis and make the best results.

Here we are. I have another chance, another shot. Hopefully, as I said, I can be fit enough and play well enough to keep up with Carlos. Then it can be anybody's match.

Q. You were down 15-40 in the past, and you have come back to win matches. Today in the fourth set when you were having 40-15 and match points and coming back to deuce, what was going through your mind? How did you turn it around?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Disappointed really to drop both of those match points, because I was in the rally in both of them. You know, I thought that that last game I read his first serve well. He missed more first serves than he has throughout the entire set. So he gave me a chance to be in the rallies, but I was just pushing the ball. I wasn't doing much with the ball, and then it ended up with me being in a defensive position and I missed two backhands. That's what happened.

But then I had a very good return and couple of good points at the deuce and then put myself in a position to have another match point. You know, well, basically in the end, you know, I was debating whether I should step in for the second serve or go back. I went back, and I had pretty good success today against him when I went back, because I just wanted to give him a different look.

Whether that provoked him to make a double fault or not, I don't know, but I think it did give him just a different positioning, different perspective on where I'm positioned on the court, which can mess up with your mind a little bit in these crucial moments.

Yeah, that's how it ended up, unfortunately for him, but I think the fight in that last game, the intensity that we brought out was amazing. Hopefully people loved it.