NEW YORK – He was not even 1½ hours into his first match at Flushing Meadows in two years, and while Novak Djokovic eventually would get past Marton Fucsovics 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 Tuesday, it was a bit of an ordeal.
“Survival mode,” Djokovic called it.
With the temperature topping 95 degrees and the humidity approaching 50 percent, nearly everything became a struggle for every player across the grounds on Day 2 of the U.S. Open, so much so that no fewer than six quit their matches, with five citing cramps or heat exhaustion. How bad was it out there at its worst Tuesday?
“Bloody hot,” said two-time major semifinalist Johanna Konta, who lost 6-2, 6-2 to No. 6 Caroline Garcia.
“Brutal,” said 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic, who advanced when his opponent retired in the third set.
“Terrible. It’s awful out there,” said Tennys Sandgren, an American who won in straight sets and will face Djokovic in the second round.
“I don’t know how guys are hanging in there.”
I was thinking in the third set, like, ‘It’s getting really bad. I just don’t know how long I have to play out there.’ And I think everybody kind of feels similarly.”
Djokovic certainly did.
“Everything is boiling – in your body, the brain, everything,” said Djokovic, who’s won two of his 13 Grand Slam titles in New York but sat out last year’s U.S. Open because of an injured right elbow.
He is a popular pick to hoist the trophy again, coming off a Wimbledon title in July and a victory over Roger Federer in the final of the hard-court Cincinnati Masters in August. Federer was among those lucky enough to play a night match Tuesday, beating Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 6-2, 6-2, 6-4. Federer’s third-round opponent could be the entertaining, if mercurial, Nick Kyrgios, the 30th-seeded Australian who had 25 aces and 14 double-faults while defeating Radu Albot 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
In the last match on Ashe, 2017 runner-up Madison Keys advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over 71st-ranked Pauline Parmentier of France. The final match of Day 2 was in Louis Armstrong Stadium, where five-time major champion Maria Sharapova faced 39-year-old qualifier Patty Schnyder.
