by Andrew Hipp
In the third round of Roland Garros, current world number three Novak Djokovic is seeking his twenty-fifth grand slam and his fourth at the world’s only clay Grand Slam. Djokovic came into Roland Garros only having played one clay match which he lost to young Croat, Dino Prizmic. In the opening rounds, Djokovic was given a tough draw having to face back to back tricky french players. In his first round the Serbian number one drew the big serving Giovanni Mpetchi Perricard. After a tricky first set, Djokovic came through his first round match 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 making him 21-0 in opening round matches at Roland Garros.
Next, the world number three faced Valentin Royer. Novak rushed to an early two set lead and was looking to be a straight forward match for the 39-year old. Royer had other plans, taking the match to a third set tiebreak which the Frenchman would take 9-7 to force a fourth set. Novak would later regroup to take the match 6-3 in the fourth. In his third round match he had a mouth watering match-up against Brazil’s Joao Fonseca.
Fonseca found success on clay early in the season, taking the men’s doubles title in the Rio Open. Fonseca drew French qualifier Luka Pavlovic in an intense battle. Both players had opportunities to take the first set, but Fonseca ultimately came out on top and would later take sets two and three relatively easy. Next, Fonseca battled the man who downed Djokovic a couple weeks prior, Dino Prizmic. Prizmic came out firing, rushing to a two sets lead on the young Brazilian. Fonseca would dig deep to edge out Prizmic in the third set. Fonseca would then crank up mentally and dominate Prizmic in sets four and five and the match-up versus the three time champ was on in Paris on court Philippe-Chatrier.
Coming into the match Djokovic was 18-0 against teenagers at Roland Garros.
To start out the match Novak went up a break and with the help of unforced errors from the racket of Fonseca, would take that set 6-4 . The second set was mostly the same story where Djokovic would outlast Fonseca in a set that would lean 6-4 Djokovic. Looking like a straightforward win for the three time champ
Djokovic would then leave the court for a break.
In set three, Fonseca upped his aggression, leading to a singular break that would lead the third set to go Fonseca 6-3. To start the fourth set Fonseca raced to a lead with a quick break and Djokovic was starting to show signs of frustration towards his box. Djokovic would focus up mentally and break back and would get the set to 5-5. After a game that had twists and turns in the shotmaking, Fonseca would get his break back and serve out the set to make this one of Roland Garros’ many five setters this year.
For the first half of the set Djokovic dominated, going up 3-1 and an early break. The shotmaking in this set was being compared on the TNT live coverage as similar to the Roland Garros final last year in which the match was dubbed an all time classic by fans. Late in the fifth set Fonseca would get that break back and then break again to go up 6-5 and serve for a spot in the fourth round. Djokovic would have a surge getting to break point at add-out ending Djokovic’s chances at this year’s Roland Garros. Fonseca would then serve out three aces in a row to win the match. In his post match interview Fonseca stated that he
“felt like John Isner.”
Djokovic stated in his post-match press conference that Fonseca was “just amazing from his side” giving respect to his opponent even in defeat.
Djokovic won more points overall in the match showing that it is not how many points you win, it’s which ones you win.
With Jannik Sinner out of the draw, who knows how far Fonseca could go and even if he could win his first Grand Slam at just the age of 19
