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Jelena Djokovic gave her approval when her husband, Novak Djokovic, celebrated his win against American Taylor Fritz on Tuesday with a dance at the U.S. Open quarterfinals, achieving a score of 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.
After the match, Djokovic demonstrated his dance moves to the song “Soda Pop” from the animated movie “KPop Demon Hunters” during a post-match interview. He performed this as a special dedication to his daughter, Tara, for her 8th birthday, which fell on the same day.
“Awwwww My little soda pop!!!” Jelena wrote on her Instagram Story, including a video of the Serbian star, 38, dancing into the U.S. Open semifinals.
“Let’s go hahaha,” she added in Croatian.
Following the match, Djokovic, who has won the U.S. Open four times, mentioned that the sweet victory was a “big present” for his daughter, a K-pop enthusiast who had taught him the dance steps.
“It’s 20 minutes to midnight here, 2 September, it’s my daughter’s birthday, so this is a big present for her,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview at Arthur Ashe Stadium. “Actually, the dance in the end… she’s going to rate me tomorrow how the dance was because she told me how to dance. It’s ‘KPop Demon Hunters’. ‘Soda Pop’ is the name of the song.
“Obviously, it’s a big thing globally for teenagers and kids, but I didn’t know about it before my daughter told me about it a few months ago. We were at home doing different choreographies, and this is one of them, so hopefully I’ll make her smile when she wakes up tomorrow morning.”
Djokovic continued his win streak against Fritz (11-0) with his quarterfinal victory, despite committing 40 unforced errors in the quarterfinal.
“I thought for my standards that I wasn’t playing well,” Djokovic said afterward. “I didn’t feel the ball as well as I did in the third round.
“Taylor is a kind of player who, if you allow him to play, he’s going to try to dictate, be aggressive, stay close to the line. He’s going to take his forehands and punish you. I was just trying to survive, stay in the rally, make him play.”
Djokovic will face World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals Friday.