He’s never been the most popular player, never received the adoration of the fans the way Federer and Nadal did. For his career, every match is pretty much a road match. With the exception of Australia at times, Djokovic has never had the home town support that Federer and Nadal did all over the world. It has made his achievements all the more impressive. He’s a guy that came from nothing in Serbia and had to learn as he goes – making mistakes along the way and ruffling feathers here and there.

Sure, he has some bizarre world views and as we know, is not a fan of the Covid vaccine. But at 38, he has now made it to the semi-finals of all 4 Grand Slam tournaments this year. In the era of Alcaraz and Sinner, that basically means he is the best of the rest out there. At 38 – an age when most tennis stars are in the twilight of their careers or have already retired. His body is breaking down now and he seems to require a trainer in almost every match for some ailment. And because he plays so few tournaments now, he has to work himself into shape as he goes in the early rounds.

If you watch him closely, you will see that he just tries to keep the ball in play in the early rounds, and as he progresses, he will start going more for the lines and for more risk as the quality of opponent ramps up. We are certainly seeing that in this US Open. Taylor Fritz had his chances last night but truth be told, he has a ceiling due to his style of play. Big guy with a big forehand and serve but rarely comes to the net. That lack of variety hurts him against the top players. He has made the most of his physical ability but hard to beat the elite players without that other aspect of his game. SU thought he had a shot last night going in if he could extend the match to 4 or 5 sets. He almost got there. Their playing styles are not that different and quite frankly, the points were a bit boring and repetitive. But Djokovic perservered and now has Alcaraz on Friday.

Amazingly, Djokovic has a 5 – 3 career record vs. Alcaraz and has not lost to him on hard courts. But you can see how Alcaraz is a sponge and is constantly learning and processing information. He has the complete game and the only hope of opponents is that he is so confident and cocky that he will go for too much risk on shots and miss some. SU believes that Djokovic has a better shot vs. Alcaraz as opposed to Sinner who just overpowers him. Their games are very similar but Sinner at this point of his career does it better, faster and younger.

SU says that for Djokovic, does he want to hang around another year making it to the semis of Grand Slams? Is that rewarding enough for him? I don’t think so. 2026 will be his last year and he will play the big events and say good bye to the fans. I hope the fans will give him his due – he has earned it and why not? But when he hangs it up, is every tournament going to be won by either Alcaraz or Sinner? And is that entertaining? Surely, some other phenom will come along – maybe it’s Ben Shelton although SU says he needs to fix that backhand to really threaten them. But tennis needs other players to be more in the mix.

I will miss him when he goes. The good and the bad. I hope the tennis world give him his due.

After flat lining vs. the Red Sox a couple of weeks ago, the Yankees are taking care of business against the bad teams and are once again, threatening to win the division. The formula for them is simple: hit home runs and win. Don’t hit home runs and rely on putting the ball in play and moving runner along – and lose. SU is still not a believer, and I don’t see how this approach plays out in their favor in October against the better pitchers. Love that Ben Rice is now playing every day. Concerned that Jasson Dominguez is not progressing although he is still young. And any ground ball to Vope in the 9th inning is terrifying.

Juan Soto is on a tear although I thought I heard some stat that most of his home runs this year have been solo shots. Can that be true? SU still believes that the Mets will go further in the post-season than the Yankees. Time will tell.