Djokovic stages French Open escape act as Medvedev crashes out
3rd June 2024
Djokovic narrowly avoided his earliest exit from the tournament since 2009 with a thrilling five-set win.
- Djokovic looked to be heading for a shock defeat when 2-1 down in sets and 4-2 behind in the fourth set but battled back from the brink.
- He beat Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 after four hours and 39 minutes, teeing up either a rematch of last year's final against Casper Ruud or a clash with Taylor Fritz.
- The win saw Djokovic clinch a record-breaking 370 Grand Slam match wins - moving one clear of Roger Federer.
Novak Djokovic sealed a 15th consecutive French Open
quarter-final with a thrilling comeback victory over Argentinian Francisco
Cerundolo in the fourth round on Monday while Daniil Medvedev became the
highest seed to crash out at Roland Garros so far.
A limping Djokovic looked to be heading for a shock defeat
when 2-1 down in sets and 4-2 behind in the fourth set but battled back from
the brink to delight the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd by winning 6-1, 5-7,
3-6, 7-5, 6-3 after four hours and 39 minutes.
"Three or four times I was points away from losing this
match," the reigning champion said to the spectators. "I'm not sure
how I won this match."
Djokovic narrowly avoided his earliest exit from the
tournament since 2009, teeing up either a rematch of last year's final against
Casper Ruud or a clash with Taylor Fritz.
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The 24-time Grand Slam title winner had reached the last 16
by defeating Italy's Lorenzo Musetti in another bruising five-set encounter
which concluded at 3:07 a.m. Sunday.
He appeared to be feeling no ill effects as he dominated the
first set, but then needed a medical time-out early in the second after pulling
up with an apparent knee injury.
The 37-year-old, eyeing a record 370th Grand Slam match win
to break out of a tie with Roger Federer, played on but continued to walk
gingerly between points.
Cerundolo grabbed the second set by finally taking a break
point after 12 previous misses.
The 23rd seed moved ahead by two sets to one against an
increasingly frustrated top seed, who was complaining the court was too
slippery, before edging to the cusp of a famous win by forging 4-2 in front in
the fourth.
But, seemingly from nowhere, Djokovic dug deep to break and
level at 4-4.
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He forced a decider on his fourth set point of a dramatic
12th game when a stretching Cerundolo could only find the net.
There appeared to be only one outcome on the cards when the
Serbian star took a 2-0 advantage in the fifth, but his opponent rallied to
level.
Djokovic was left covered in clay after a nasty tumble,
sarcastically saying: "Well done supervisors, ground staff, everyone, the
court is not slippery at all."
But he was not to be denied, grabbing the decisive break
with a blistering forehand that clipped the back of the baseline.
A dramatic triumph and yet another quarter-final was secured
on his first match point when a Cerundolo backhand was given out by the chair
umpire after initially being ruled in.
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In another match, fifth seed Medvedev suffered a four-set
loss to Australia's Alex de Minaur, starting strongly before slipping to a 4-6,
6-2, 6-1, 6-3 defeat.
De Minaur will face either Alexander Zverev or Holger Rune,
who meet in the night session, in his second Slam quarter-final and first since
the 2020 US Open.
Medvedev's best performance in the French Open remains a
quarter-final run in 2021, while he has also lost in the first round in five of
his eight appearances.
"Alex played better," admitted Medvedev, a former
US Open champion and six-time Grand Slam finalist.
De Minaur had never got past the second round at the
tournament before this year, winning just three of 10 matches.
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In the women's draw, both Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina
comfortably powered into the last eight.
World number two Sabalenka, who was a semi-finalist in 2023
and has made at least the last four at her past six Grand Slams, proved far too
strong for American 22nd seed Emma Navarro.
The Belarusian raced into the quarters, hammering 36 winners
during a 6-2, 6-3 success in only 69 minutes.
"I'm super happy that I was able to bring this
consistency on the Grand Slams," said the two-time Australian Open
champion. "That's really amazing."
Sabalenka, who lost to Iga Swiatek in the Madrid and Rome
Open finals this clay-court season, will play 17-year-old Russian Mirra
Andreeva in the last eight.
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Andreeva became the youngest French Open women's
quarter-finalist since 2005 with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Russian-born French player
Varvara Gracheva.
"When they were screaming 'Varvara, Varvara, Varvara',
I imagined they were screaming my name and it really helped," Andreeva
said.
Former Wimbledon champion Rybakina, the fourth seed and the
only woman to defeat world number one Swiatek on clay this year, saw off
experienced Ukrainian 15th seed Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-3, also in just 69
minutes.
She will next face Italian Jasmine Paolini after the 12th seed fought back to defeat Russian Elina Avanesyan 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.