PARIS-. Novak Djokovic He injured his right knee, and then was down a set and a break. But the phenomenal Serbian did what is his specialty: resist.
The world number one came back to beat Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 on Monday to reach the quarterfinals of the French Open and reach a record number of 370 victories in Grand Slam tournaments.
Djokovic even doubted whether he would be able to finish the match, taking painkillers to ease the pain.
“The good thing about a Slam is that you have a day of rest to recover efficiently,” Djokovic said. “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, or after tomorrow, we’ll see if I can continue playing. “It’s what I want.”
The reigning champion at Roland Garros confessed that he has had knee discomfort for several weeks, but that it worsened after a bad movement at the beginning of the second set on Monday. He received treatment from the physical therapist and a doctor, who gave him medicine — in the second quarter and then in the third. This allowed him to move better. But the doctor warned him that he had ingested the maximum possible anti-inflammatories allowed.
Djokovic broke the tie with Roger Federer for the most wins in major tennis events — and also became the men’s racket with the most quarterfinal appearances in the Slams, landing for the 59th time in that instance.
“I was maybe three or four points away from losing this match,” Djokovic declared.
And the world number one achieved it with the seal that has marked his dominant career and his collection of 24 Slam crowns. He turned around a match that had become extraordinarily complicated for him — go ask Federer about letting a match point slip away against Djokovic — and grew when the tension reached boiling point for him.
The victory, after more than 4 and a half hours, left Djokovic with a record of 40-11 in five-set duels in his career, well above the 1-3 record of Cerúndolo, the 23rd seed. And the outcome should not surprise anyone.
“There really is no other tougher opponent in tennis,” Cerúndolo said after the battle on the Philippe Chatrier, the tournament’s center court. “He always finds a way to come back and bring out his best tennis in the most difficult moments and at the same time. end of each match.”
For Djokovic, this was his second consecutive match that lasted more than 4 hours, in which he was down 2-1 in sets and won in five. In the third round, he submitted Lorenzo Musetti (30th seed), a 22-year-old Italian, finishing the job after 3 a.m. on Sunday, in what turned out to be the latest ending match in history. of the French Open.
This time, against a 25-year-old Argentine who was rowing in search of his first quarterfinal in a Slam, the 37-year-old Serbian pulled out all his resources to improvise on the fly.
He achieved this, to a certain extent, by playing more aggressively and adding extra clean and jerk to his shots, in addition to easing the pain in his knee.
Djokovic trailed 4-2 in the fourth set, but took control of the match from that point on.
Source: AP
