2021 US Open

Bit irritated that in the week Djokovic potentially cements himself as the greatest player of all time, breaking the astonishing 20-20-20 share of grand slams between this generation's greats, achieving the calendar slam in the process, the sports pages are preoccupied with a women's final between two unseeded teenagers, which shows only the weakness of women's tennis.

AO aside, I think Nadal is the only Open Era player apart from Laver to win French, Wimbledon and US in the same year?

It's very difficult to compare eras properly, especially with advances with technology, fitness and diet. Another reason players didn't go to Australia was the travel involved, much easier to travel to Australia or any part of the world in the modern era, (until the recent Covid pandemic of course), than it was back in the 70's & 80's, even into the early nineties. It's really only since they changed from grass to Harcourt plus venue change, that the top players started going consistently to AO, of course this coincided with travel improvements too. The USO also had a few surface changes in the 70's from grass to clay then onto hard, so even the slams themselves weren't consistent. The surfaces on all 4 slams were significantly different too up until the early noughties, so often players skipped their weakest surface or specialised in one surface. Agrassi achieving the career slam at FO (1999 I think)was considered an amazing achievement at the time due to the surface differences, a calendar slam wasn't even considered possible at the time.

There has since been a homogenization of the AO, USO and even Wimbledon surfaces over last 20 years; AO became more similar to USO after AO changed surface type in the late noughties, Wimbledon plays more like a hard court now than ever before. Only the FO is now significantly different in how it plays to the others. Players also didn't really seem as interested in the slam race until recently, look at players who are considered all time greats only on 7, 8 or 9 slams.

The slam race is really only a recent phenomenon, Sampras was the first I remember people mentioning the slam record, then Federer came along and surpassed Sampras on 14. No one could have thought we'd have 3 players on 20 with Djokovic almost definitely going to win a few more.

The biggest stumbling block to the calendar grand slam in the last 15 years or so has been Nadal at the FO. Think he stopped both Federer and Djokovic twice (4 times) from doing it. It's probably not that surprising that when Djokovic got over Nadal this year at the FO, everyone immediately felt Djokovic could do the calendar slam. Winning the FO will continue to be the most difficult hurdle to a calendar slam as the surface is completely different to the rest, that hurdle is now slightly lower as Nadal's dominance on clay begins to wind down.

Hi.. does anyone know where i could watch this final please?

Thanks

The match turned on that horror miss by Zverev serving at 6-4 0-1 30-30, followed by a double fault to cough up the break. Then he got broken again at 2-5, meaning he serves second in the third set.

Well done Djokovic, match went along expected lines, Djokovic eventually pulling through. Good to see Zverev put in a good account of himself, bodes well for him going forward, that he might actually be ready to win a slam himself, still a bit to do as there is a big difference between getting close and actually getting over the line, the next step for him is the hardest part of the game, this is the part Djokovic has perfected, regardless of the situation he always seems to be able to find a way to pull through. His record in 5 set deciders is remarkable, once it goes to a fifth, he's pretty much unbeatable.

Medvedev needs to be at his best tomorrow, take every opportunity he gets and hold it together at the crucial big points, that still might not be good enough, as we know Djokovic will show up ready to take any sniff of an opportunity. Let's hope for a great match and performance from both players.

Medvedev has no excuses, playing well, a favourable draw, easier semi final, so should be fresher for the final, but, Djokovic is the ultimate challenge and think Medvedev will ultimately come up short.

Djokovic has too much on the line for him to let it slip now; the calendar slam ( unlikely to get the chance again) and getting to 21( definitely get that chance again and go beyond) all on the one night.