Novak Djokovic battled past Daniil Medvedev 6-3 7-6(5) 6-3 and into the tennis history books on Sunday, winning the U.S. Open and his record 24th major championship victory.

But the numbers don’t tell the entire story.  In fact, they tell very little of it.

When the last shot of Medvedev fell short, Djokovic fell to the ground in pure joy and reflection.

Also, when the last shot fell to the ground, the ESPN announcing duo of Fowler and McEnroe had to do their duty for a sponsor and pick the “Moderna Shot of the Day.”  They chose the last shot of the day.

The irony.

You see Djokovic was not allowed to participate in the last two US Opens, because he did not get a shot or two, or three from Moderna, nor Pfizer, nor J&J for that matter.  For him, the Open was closed.  His last shot will also be his first.

He looks fairly healthy without the jab don’t you think?  But, but, but he could spread it.

Progressive Disney owns progressive ESPN-at least for now.  It telecasts the progressive US Open.

The Open has signs everywhere boasting “50 years with equal pay.”  It’s nice work if you can make the same money playing at most three sets when the men play up to five.

It’s even nicer when the audience for the women’s finals is usually about 1/2 of the men’s.  It used to be called capitalism.

The women’s final was played on Saturday.  Coco Gauff beat Aryna Sabalenka.

Also, the country’s national anthem isn’t played there.  They only play a mixture of America the Beautiful and Lift Every Voice and Sing.

And there he stood accepting the trophy at Center Court without a mask nor a 6-foot social distance perimeter in sight.  That’s surprising because the last two weeks we’ve been told by the CDC and NIH experts that a new strain of the coronavirus is coming at us like a Djokovic ace.

It’s called Corona 24.b.a.firefauci.nbc.whocares.+ 2.#juststopit.enoughalready, or something close to that we heard.

The stiff in the suit who presented the trophy to the champ said, “Welcome back to New York Mr Djokovic, we’ve missed you.”

When Djokovic is pronounced the D is silent.  So it’s “joke o vic.”

Last night the joke was on them.

And, the smile was on Novak’s face.