Is the French Open Novak Djokovic’s time to finally win a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam? “It could be, but only if the unthinkable happens to world No 1 Jannik Sinner,” claims Sky Sports’ lead commentator Jonathan Overend.For all his experience, though – the 39-year-old shares the record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles with Margaret Court – Djokovic headed into this year’s French Open with hardly any match preparation.
But the Serb began his latest bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title by crossing a milestone and a tricky hurdle with a 5-7 7-5 6-1 6-4 first-round victory over local hope Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
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Highlights of the Italian Open first-round as Dino Prizmic shocked Djokovic
Djokovic lost to Croatian qualifier Dino Prizmic at the Italian Open – after two months out due to a right shoulder injury.But with Carlos Alcaraz, the two-time reigning French Open champion, out with an injured wrist, Djokovic sees a chance to progress all the way through in the lower half of the draw.
“Alcaraz’s absence is a huge blow for the tournament and a huge blow for tennis because the narrative in the men’s game is Sinner and Alcaraz and it’s the rivalry and it’s who’s going to win more,” said Overend.
“Are they going to continue to win the big prizes at the expense of everybody else and now it makes it a situation where we have an overwhelming favourite for a Grand Slam title, more so than we’ve had certainly than I can remember.
“I cannot remember another time when we’ve had a favourite for a Grand Slam. When you consider we’re talking about seven match wins and the best of five sets, there is a lot of jeopardy there. There are a lot of good opponents, a lot of things that can go wrong, over a long period of time in 14 days.”To have someone who is overwhelming a favourite as Sinner is incredibly rare and is that good for the tournament as a whole? Not really because you want to build a narrative across those two weeks leading up to an extraordinary finale and we’re not going to get that repeat of last year’s classic final.”The matches between them have not been epics – certainly when you compare it to that Roland-Garros final, so you wonder when the next time is going to be…
2026-05-25 07:00:00
