French Open preview: Novak Djokovic. Will the tennis star seize the chance for a historic triumph?

The turn of May and June is reserved in the tennis world for the French Open. The second Grand Slam of the season is hosted by Paris and the Musketeers’ Cup is traditionally contested by the world’s top players. Let’s take a look at the biggest favourites for the only clay grand slam on the circuit.

The first round of Roland Garros starts on Sunday 28 May. In the previous previews we have already presented the ambitions of last year’s semi-finalist Alexander Zverev. We also got to see world number seven Russian Andrey Rublyov and fresh winner from Rome Daniil Medvedev.

Canadian Auger-Aliassime and ambitious Dane Holger Rune also got their chance. With the start of this year’s French Open just a matter of hours away, it’s time to take on the biggest favourites. We start with two-time Paris Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic.

Novak Djokovic

Describing all the Serbian tennis player’s strengths, from his serve to his backhand, would take a long time, and perhaps it would also be the proverbial carrying of wood into the forest. Let’s stop at one specific but very important statistic. Djokovic is unbeatable under pressure. He wins the most balls in crucial situations such as break points and tiebreaks. He has also won 75% of deciding sets over the last year.

The native of Belgrade is the only tennis player in this year’s French Open who already knows what a triumph at Roland Garros tastes like. Nadal’s non-participation provides the Serbian with an opportunity to make a name for himself in the historic Grand Slam winners’ rankings. He now shares the lead with the Spaniard. Both have won 22 titles at the most prestigious tournaments.

Another historical record that hangs in the air thanks to Djoker concerns career Grand Slams. The Serbian tennis player managed to win each of the Grand Slams at least twice. To achieve a third set of victories in these tournaments, he is only one triumph short of that, and that is at Roland Garros.

So the winner of 93 events on the ATP circuit has his motivation taken care of. The question is his current form. This year, for the first time in a long time, Djokovic will start the French Open without having won another clay tournament.

Current form

This year’s clay results of the Serbian tennis player are really more modest than in the past years. Overall, he has achieved a 5::3 record in them. He has been limping for a while with an injured elbow. The most valuable victory from this period can be considered the one against Cameron Norrie. He is now the 14th player in the rankings.

Defeats for the recent (and record reigning) world number one came successively from Italian Musetti, his compatriot Lajovic and last week from Holger Rune. The Dane beat him for the second time in a row. In all three clay court events, Djokovic reached the quarter-finals at most.

The two-time Roland Garros champion is certainly not sceptical. “I know I can always play better. I’m definitely looking forward to honing different aspects of my game,” he says, looking forward to the final stage of his preparation before the clay grand slam.

There can be no question of underestimating her opponents either. Denmark’s Rune Djokovic is one of the top three favourites for the upcoming clay grand slam. Incidentally, he also named Medvedev and Alcaraz. “But if I had to choose only one favourite, I would probably choose Novak,” the Danish tennis player added.

In conclusion ..

It is likely that Djokovic will put his poor results of the last few weeks behind him and put in a much better performance at Roland Garros. In the absence of Nadal, he will be one of the biggest favourites to win the title. In his case, the third.

Source: ATP, Eurosport