ROLAND GARROS — It was hard to watch Jannik Sinner, the runaway world No 1 of men’s tennis, rolling serves in like a club player in the heat of Thursday afternoon.
Beset by cramps and heat exhaustion, the Italian could barely stand, less still hit the ball with the kind of venom that has been his hallmark.
Sinner was an odds-on favourite for the title after Carlos Alcaraz confirmed that he would miss Roland Garros because of a wrist injury. He got to within four points of second-round victory on Thursday before a midday start and a match in the 33-degree heat took its toll and handed Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo a shock win.
His supporters would not have been the only ones celebrating. Novak Djokovic, however quietly, would have been surreptitiously pumping a fist at the news that if he makes to the final, he will now not have to face Sinner.
Djokovic currently has 24 grand slams to his name, a number that puts him tied with Margaret Court on the all-time list. Some argue the toss about how legitimate some of the Australian’s titles are, playing at a time when not everyone travelled to all the majors and some won before the Open era, but winning 25 remains a stated aim of Djokovic’s, and would avoid any disagreement about the all-time leader.
His status as the greatest of all-time is secure, irrespective of whether he wins another one or not, but he would not still be playing if he did not want to. Djokovic barely plays outside the majors these days, prioritising the biggest titles to give himself the best possible chance.
He has struggled to get fit in time for this French Open and it was even mooted that he could miss it to make sure he was fit for Wimbledon – but that theory was dismissed when Alcaraz pulled out: Djokovic has reached at least the semi-final of the last five grand slams. At the last four, he has been beaten ether by Alcaraz or Sinner. When he did finally manage to beat Sinner at the Australian Open in January, he lost to Alcaraz two days later.
At 39, Djokovic’s window is closing. His ability to stay fit and complete seven best-of-five matches is not what it was, but at least now his two great modern nemeses are out of the way: the final here will be the first men’s major not featuring at least one of them.
It’s not going to be straight forward: even against the unfancied Valentin Royer on Wednesday, he dropped a set and battled some discomfort around his hip, and he has already admitted his tennis is not at its peak after limited lead-in time on court because of a shoulder problem. And like Sinner, he does not like the heat and will have to play in it when he faces Joao Fonseca, the Brazilian phenom in the third round. The forecast is for 34 degrees Celsius and a higher humidity rating, but with limited chance of Roland Garros’s little-used heat rule being activated.
Come through that challenge though, and he will feel it is his tournament to lose: he is already the only man left who has ever won a grand slam.
And that’s why it feels like now or never for Djokovic and No 25.
