Griekspoor, heckler no match for Novak Djokovic, now five wins away from completing calendar-year Slam at US Open

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In his first match at the US Open on Tuesday night, Novak Djokovic faced a feisty underdog of an opponent—and a crowd heavily cheering that underdog on over the course of four sets. The follow-up was far tamer in both respects, as Djokovic took just 100 minutes to beat 121st-ranked Tallon Griekspoor 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

“Great performance,” said Djokovic. “Better definitely than the first-round match.

“Obviously I'm very pleased with the way I came out on the court. I served very well. I found the rhythm on the serve. It was important I came up with the goods. I made him play.”

Routine as this match was, there remained much to savor about Djokovic’s exquisite set of skills. Start with his shot depth, groundstroke after groundstroke landing inches inside the baseline. There also were several sharp moves forward, Djokovic spicing up play with 18 winning sorties to the net. Add to this Djokovic’s increasing command of the serve, highlighted by winning 37 of 46 points on his first serve, and only having it broken once.

It was the kind of end-to-end effort that would have brought a smile to the face of tennis’ first Grand Slam champion, Don Budge. As Budge’s coach, Tom Stow, used to say, there are two games in tennis: the serve game and the return game. The latter has always been a major strength for Djokovic. But only more recently has his serve become that much more potent. As Budge revealed when he swept through those four majors 83 years ago, the ability to take charge of points rapidly with each can make a player lethal.

The work Djokovic has done with Goran Ivanisevic, a newly minted Hall of Famer with one of the greatest serves in tennis history, has sharply aided his ability to both set up attackable balls and win points outright. Tonight, serving at 3-2 in the third set, Djokovic was down love-40 – but got his way out of the game with several strong serves. Fittingly, at 5-2, 40-30, Djokovic closed out the match with his 13th ace.

Next up on Saturday is a familiar opponent, Kei Nishikori, a man Djokovic has beaten 16 straight times since losing to him in the semis of the 2014 US Open. Asked if he had Nishikori’s number, Djokovic joked, “I actually do, in my phone. I don't have anyone's number on the court until I win.”

Look, there's a lot of noise happening on the stadium, particularly in the night sessions. I don't mind that. Novak Djokovic

But for all the business-like qualities of Djokovic’s tennis, there remains the matter of how people interact with him. Tuesday evening it was the masses, a New York crowd perhaps simply excited to be back in the thick of Arthur Ashe Stadium night play after an Open-deprived year. This evening, there came a single heckler. The pathology of such a person remains a dissertation in waiting.

“Look, there's a lot of noise happening on the stadium, particularly in the night sessions. I don't mind that,” said Djokovic. “Even sometimes during the point it happens that people out of excitement, they just scream or they release like a sound or whatever—sigh, whatever you call it. And that's fine. But if someone intentionally does it over and over again, then I have tolerance up to a certain point, then it's not correct, then it's not fine. It's not fair. I feel like it's not good for us players.

“I mean, particularly that guy for some reason was calling, raising the sound and kind of screaming just before I would hit my smash which was a big point. Before that he would do a few times.”

But Djokovic also knows that tranquility must be his US Open mantra. Last year’s shocking, unintentional default was likely bracing. Surely, Djokovic also can not feel good about the excessive anger that accompanied his exit from the Olympics.

So now, amid all the pressure he’s embraced and aware of in New York, Djokovic might well draw solace from comments he made just after losing the 2007 US Open final to Roger Federer. Years earlier, at the age of six, Djokovic had watched the 1993 Wimbledon final and discovered his first tennis idol, Pete Sampras. Fourteen years later, in New York, Djokovic reached his first major final, an experience that taught him much.

As he said that evening, “I think Sampras and Federer have this thing in common. They are very similar in that they are mentally very strong in that important moments they always play their best. They're ice cold faces, just going for the shot.”