Novak Djokovic is clearly on the edge during his match against Taylor Fritz. Needless to say, there’s a lot of pressure on the Serbian. He’s not only trying to win his 25th Grand Slam title, but also win his 64th major quarterfinal, and the 14th one at the US Open. And trailing behind Fritz in the third set after winning the first two with a score of 6-3, 7-5, seemed to be taking a toll on the 38-year-old. And that got into the spotlight when he entered into an argument with the chair umpire, Damien Dumosois. 

In the third set of the battle against Fritz, while the American was leading 2-1 during the Serbian’s serve, the crowd went bonkers with the cheers as Fritz went on to win the next point. And that ticked Novak Djokovic off in the wrong way. In his fury, he stepped towards the umpire and complained about the shouting crowd. “What are you gonna do?” he asked. Needless to say, the NYC crowd wasn’t a fan of such complaints, and people began booing Djokovic. 

Dumosois simply replied, “It’s not gonna help, Novak.” He further suggested that he’d ask the crowd to lower their voices when both players were ready to exchange volleys. Dejected with the crowd’s attitude and the umpire’s response, Djokovic had no choice but to move away and focus on his own game. 

The result? He lost the third set. But that didn’t stop the former world No. 1 from claiming the win. He pushed through in the fourth set and defeated Taylor Fritz. And in the end, he celebrated the victory in a dance that we haven’t really seen Djokovic perform before. Well, Djokovic needed to focus on winning the match for a special reason. And that involved his daughter, Tara.

So, what was so special about the win apart from the fact that it made Djokovic the oldest player to enter the semifinals in all four Grand Slams in a single season? And why exactly did he perform the dance? 

Novak Djokovic opens up about his post-victory dance moves

During the post-match on-court interview, Djokovic revealed that 20 minutes after his victory was his daughter’s eighth birthday. And the victory and the dance? They were a special birthday surprise for her. Opening up on the dance, the 38-year-old revealed that he danced to a K-Pop song, Soda Pop, by Demon Hunters. And his daughter is going to rate his dance in the morning. 

Novak Djokovic said, “Obviously, it’s a big thing globally for teenagers and kids. But I didn’t know about it before my daughter told a few months ago about it. So, we’re at home, doing different choreographies and this is one of them. So, hopefully I’ll make her smile when she wakes up tomorrow morning.” 

With nothing but smiles and cheers oozing from the crowd, it seemed like Djokovic forgot and forgave the NYC audience for their noisy behavior in the third set. And finally, we’ll get to see the former number one going up against the current number 2, Carlos Alcaraz, who knows how “hungry” he still is. But can Djokovic actually win against the Spaniard? We’ll find that out soon enough. 

Until that happens, keep the 2025 US Open spirit alive by visiting the EssentiallySports Live Blog!