Defending champion and world No 1 wins another five-set French Open epic at Roland Garros
Novak Djokovic continues his chase for a record-extending 25th major title and fourth French Open after defeating Francisco Cerundolo in a thrilling four hours and 39 minutes to reach a record 59th Grand Slam quarter-final
Novak Djokovic battled injury and fatigue to survive another near five-hour, five-set French Open thriller with a 6-1 5-7 3-6 7-5 6-3 victory over Francisco Cerundolo on Monday.
The 37-year-old tweaked his knee and received four medical timeouts for the problem, but despite his movement being hampered, Djokovic refused to surrender, and he battled back from two sets to one down and 2-4 in the fourth set to make the last eight in Paris for the 15th consecutive time.
The Serb, who is chasing a record-extending 25th Grand Slam title, sealed his 370th match victory to move clear of Swiss great Roger Federer.
“Again a big thank you because once again like the last match, the win is your win,” an exhausted Djokovic told the crowd in fluent French.
The 37-year-old showed no early signs of fatigue from his marathon third-round win over Lorenzo Musetti, another near five-hour epic that ended in the early hours of Sunday morning, as he blitzed clay specialist Cerundolo in the opening set
Djokovic sustained a right knee issue early in the next and needed treatment on court. He was heard telling the physio: “I screwed up my knee. I’m slipping and sliding all the time.”
Four games later he complained to a tournament supervisor about the state of the court, saying: “I’m telling you as a player, it’s not okay.”
When the official told Djokovic the grounds people felt the surface was fine, the Serbian snapped: “They know better than me the court is good or not?”
He took medication again after Argentinian 23rd seed Cerundolo levelled the match, finally converting a break point at the 13th attempt.
Cerundolo grabbed another break early in the next set to go 3-0 up and comfortably got ahead in the clash as alarm bells began to ring for Djokovic for a second straight match as he continued to hobble between points.
The 24-time grand slam champion, whose five-set match against Lorenzo Musetti finished after 3am on Sunday morning, appeared to be running on empty and chuntered with his team in the players’ box, occasionally appearing to suggest he was ready to give up.
The finish line seemed to appear for Argentine hitter Cerundolo when he went up 4-2 in the next set but the 25-year-old squandered the advantage as Djokovic sent down two big serves and produced a spectacular drop en route to holding for 6-5 before levelling the contest.
Having dropped serve after a fast start, Djokovic took a nasty tumble during a point and ranted about the state of the Court Philippe-Chatrier surface, with his voice drenched in sarcasm: “Well done, supervisor and everybody. Not slippery at all.”
Yet Djokovic did not appear too injured when he dived to get to a volley at the net, almost going full splits before landing on his stomach on his way to winning another remarkable match.
The Serbian will play Casper Ruud in a rematch of last year’s final on Wednesday.
Norwegian seventh seed Ruud defeated American Taylor Fritz 7-6 (8-6) 3-6 6-4 6-2 to book his spot in the quarter-finals.
