NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2021) The pandemic has in general ended for tennis last year, and everything is now back to normal, Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev told Sputnik after winning the 2021 US Open.
"Speaking specifically about tennis, then in a sense the pandemic ended just something last year, when the US Open began, it was the first tournament after the pandemic," Medvedev said. "After that, the tennis tournament - yes, there were ups and downs - but it has continued. That is, there were tournaments, but there were no more stops... Now, in tennis, everything is back to normal. Even here in New York the stadium was allowed to be filled to capacity, so now the usual training process is going on."
He said the most difficult for tennis players was the initial period of the pandemic when it was hard to understand whether they could train or not and which tournament that had to prepare for.
On Sunday, Medvedev beat Serbia's Novak Djokovic in straight sets, becoming the winner of the 2021 US Open men's final.
Medvedev outplayed the Serbian world number one 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday night, denying Djokovic a record-breaking 21st major men's singles title that would have completed the calendar-year Grand Slam.
This was the first Grand Slam victory for 25-year-old Medvedev, who lost to Djokovic in February of this year in the Australian Open final. The Russian tennis player was appearing in his third career Grand Slam final on Sunday.
Djokovic was trying to complete the Calendar Grand Slam with the goal of winning the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open this year, for the first time since Australia's Rod Laver in 1969.
