NEW YORK — Novak Djokovic overcame a slow start to beat Zachary Svajda 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday, remaining unbeaten for his career in the first two rounds of the US Open.
Playing the opening match of the day session at Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time since 2014, Djokovic improved to 54-45 in majors after losing the opening set — the most such wins by any man in the Open era (since 1968).
Djokovic appeared to be laboring physically early in the match, as he was at times in his first-round victory. But after getting broken to fall behind 3-1 in the third set, he finally began looking like the player who has won a men’s record 24 Grand Slam titles, including four of them in New York.
The No. 7-seeded Djokovic won the next eight games against the American qualifier to open a 3-0 lead in the fourth set and eventually closed it out in just 26 minutes after the first set took an hour.
“I wasn’t very happy with my tennis for the first part of the match,” Djokovic said, while also giving credit to his opponent, who was clearly struggling with an injury during the latter part of the match.
Svajda, who entered Wednesday having won 17 of his past 19 matches across all levels including qualifying, called for the trainer multiple times during changeovers and appeared to be struggling with cramps.
“Kudos to him for staying on the court,” Djokovic said.
It was Djokovic’s 191st career match win at a hard-court major, tying Roger Federer for the second most all time behind Serena Williams’ 200.
Djokovic, 38, has reached the third round in all 19 appearances in New York, tying Federer for most in the Open era.
He next faces either Cameron Norrie — against whom Djokovic is 6-0 — or Francisco Comesana, who he has not played.
In other men’s singles second-round results, No. 20 Jiri Lehecka defeated Tomas Martin Etcheverry 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, 6-4. And Czechia’s Tomas Machac, the No. 21 seed, got past Brazilian 19-year-old sensation Joao Fonseca 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-3.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
