{"id":6653,"date":"2023-08-29T18:28:03","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T13:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=6653"},"modified":"2023-08-29T18:28:04","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T13:28:04","slug":"djokovic-back-on-top-after-us-open-return-swiatek-rolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/news\/djokovic-back-on-top-after-us-open-return-swiatek-rolls\/","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic back on top after US Open return, Swiatek rolls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic ensured he will return to the top of tennis’s world rankings with an emphatic first-round victory at the US Open on Monday as women’s world number one Iga Swiatek and American rival Coco Gauff advanced.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Djokovic, chasing a record-extending 24th Grand Slam singles title in New York, shrugged off a late-night start on the Arthur Ashe Stadium to demolish France’s Alexandre Muller 6-0, 6-2, 6-3 in just 1hr 35min.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The win means Djokovic is guaranteed to replace defending US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz as world number one when the tennis rankings are next updated after the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Djokovic is playing in New York for the first time since suffering an agonizing defeat in the 2021 final in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was barred from entry to the United States in 2022 for his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19, meaning he was unable to play in the US Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday the 36-year-old played like a man making up for lost time, reeling off 32 winners and breaking Muller eight times in a lopsided encounter that finished at around 12.40 am local time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Djokovic, who will face Spain’s Bernabe Zapata Miralles in the second round, said he was unfazed by the late start to his game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I didn’t care if I started after midnight because I was looking forward to this moment for a few years, to be out on the biggest stadium in our sport, the loudest stadium in our sport, playing night session,” Djokovic said. “It was a great joy to be stepping out on the court.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic ensured he will return to the top of tennis’s world rankings with an emphatic first-round victory at the US Open on Monday as women’s world number one Iga Swiatek and American rival Coco Gauff advanced. Djokovic, chasing a record-extending 24th Grand Slam singles title in New York, shrugged off a late-night start on […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,53,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}