Novak Djokovic: It wasn’t one of my best performances

World No 1 Novak Djokovic won without playing his best to reach the second round of the US Open on Tuesday in his quest for a calendaryear Grand Slam and record 21st major titleThe Serbian star 34 dominated much of the way in beating Danish qualifier Holger Rune 61 67 57 62 61 after two hours and 15 minutes in the night feature at Arthur Ashe Stadium ldquoIt wasnrsquot the best of my performancesrdquo Djokovic said ldquoAt the same time he played well in the second set when it mattered and I didnrsquot serve well in the second setrdquoGearing up for GriekspoorHistorychasing Djokovic who has won eight of the past 12 Grand Slam events will next face 121stranked Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor a rival the top seed admitted he didnrsquot know much about ldquoI know this court wellrdquo Djokovic said ldquoHopefully thatrsquos going to helprdquoDjokovic would complete the first menrsquos singles calendaryear Slam since Rod Laver in 1969 by winning the crown on the New York hardcourtsHe would also break the deadlock for alltime menrsquos Slam titles at 20 which he shares with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both absent due to injuries as is defending champion Dominic Thiem Rune ranked 145th began cramping in the third set and struggled to finish ldquoFrom the third or fourth game in the third set he couldnrsquot move muchrdquo Djokovic said ldquoYou could see he struggled a lot I feel for himrdquoAlexander ZverevZverev stretches win streakEarlier on Tuesday Tokyo Olympic champion Alexander Zverev stretched his win streak to 12 matches and warned he has his eyes on denying Djokovic the Slam Fourth seed Zverev who beat Djokovic in an Olympic semifinal dispatched American Sam Querrey 64 75 62 ldquoI hope in two weeksrsquo time Irsquoll be on an 18match winning streakrdquo said Zverev who would claim his first Grand Slam title if he creates such a run Zverev who next faces Spainrsquos Albert RamosVinolas could face Djokovic in the semifinals ldquoTo beat Novak here is going to be an extremely difficult taskrdquo Zverev saidAshleigh BartyBarty beats ZvonarevaFrenchborn US qualifier Maxime Cressy fired 44 aces and saved four match points to upset Spanish ninth seed Pablo Carreno Busta 57 46 61 64 76 97 World No 1 Ashleigh Barty coming off wins at Wimbledon and Cincinnati began her chase for backtoback Slam titles by defeating Russian Vera Zvonareva 61 76 97 The Australian 25 next faces Denmarkrsquos Clara Tauson as she goes for her sixth title of the year Italian sixth seed and Wimbledon runnerup Matteo Berrettini a 2019 US Open semifinalist defeated Francersquos Jeremy Chardy 76 75 76 97 63 Canadian sixth seed Bianca Andreescu struggled but outlasted Swiss Viktorija Golubic 75 46 75Osaka enters Round 3Meanwhile defending champion Naomi Osaka advanced to the third round of the US Open by walkover on Wednesday when Serbian qualifier Olga Danilovic withdrew for an undisclosed medical reasonAlso Read PR Sreejesh The goalpost is my buddyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliabilitsy and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever