French Open 2024

Out in Paris! Medvedev fails against De Minaur

Novak Djokovic

(Bild: AFP)

Novak Djokovic once again looked like the loser, but after 4:39 hours he left Court Philippe Chatrier as the winner! After yet another drama, because after the first set he seemed to be severely handicapped due to a knee injury in the French Open round of 16 on Monday. In the end, Djokovic turned the match around against Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo to win 6:1-5:7-3:6-7:5-6:3. Two days ago, after 3 a.m., he had also turned around a 1:2 in sets. 

So the dream of a 25th Grand Slam title for the recently 37-year-old at the French Open lives on. Had the defending champion lost, Jannik Sinner (ITA) would have become the new world No. 1 from June 10, regardless of his performance. Djokovic thanked the crowd in French. "A big thank you to all of you. This victory is your victory," said the "Djoker". He later said: "I wasn't always the crowd's favorite here, today I asked the crowd to help me and they did."

"I couldn't really play two sets!"
He will only see what exactly is wrong with his left knee when it is colder. Thanks to painkillers, he was almost pain-free in the fifth set. "I couldn't really play two sets." It was a new injury for him and he would see how things progressed. For Djokovic, everything seemed to be in place on his way to the quarter-finals: In the first set, he roared past Filip Misolic's second-round opponent 6:1, but in the second set, the "Djoker" suddenly had pain in his left knee and had to take a "medical time-out".

However, as is so often the case, Djokovic stepped up his game with his irrepressible will to win after losing sets 2 and 3. He was already 2:4 down with a break in the fourth set. "I was three or four points away from defeat," he said later. When he converted his fourth set point in the fourth set after 3:48 hours, the match was completely open again. Like many players before him, a very nervous Cerundolo had a very difficult time mentally, because you can never write off an ailing Djokovic.

Djokovic will now meet Casper Ruud again in the quarter-finals in a repeat of last year's final. The Norwegian, seeded No. 7, defeated the American Taylor Fritz (No. 12) 7:6(6), 3:6, 6:4, 6:2 after 3:31 hours. Djokovic leads the head-to-head with the Norwegian 5:1, but the Serb's only defeat this year came in the Monte Carlo semifinals. Djokovic had won the Roland Garros final in three sets.

Medvedev has to pull out in the west of Paris
Daniil Medvedev had already been forced to retire prematurely in the west of Paris. The world number five from Russia also failed to reach the decisive phase in his eighth appearance, and the quarter-finals remain his best result of 2021, having already failed five times in Round 1. Medvedev only won the first set against Australian number 11 seed Alex de Minaur before going down 6:4, 2:6, 1:6, 3:6.

Schwärzler won his opening match in the junior competition
From an Austrian perspective, it can be reported that Skopje Challenger winner Joel Schwärzler won his opening match in the junior competition. The 18-year-old from Vorarlberg, whose clear goal is to win the title on the Seine in one of his last junior tournaments, had a little more trouble than expected with Jack Kennedy from the USA, winning 4:6, 6:3, 6:2. He also mastered the first round in the doubles, in which he is top seeded with Nicolai Budkov Kjaer from Norway.