French Open: Novak Djokovic is certainly no dark horse to quarterfinal foe Alexander Zverev
Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — For all of Novak Djokovic's titles (100 in all) and Grand Slam trophies (24) and weeks at No. 1 (428, more than anyone else in tennis history), for all of his talent and determination, the guy still can find himself worrying about what is going on with his game.
Happened a little more than a month ago, even, when he was coming off three consecutive losses — his second skid of that length in 2025 — and was particularly concerned about being 0-2 on red clay this season as the start of the French Open approached.
So Djokovic decided to enter the Geneva Open and what do you know? He hasn't lost since, going 8-0 heading into his quarterfinal matchup against No. 3 Alexander Zverev at Roland-Garros on Wednesday.
After leaving Geneva with the championship, Djokovic not only has won his first four matches in Paris, but has yet to drop a set.
'It happens if you lose a match or two consecutively, and then you don't feel you have enough match play, you start to maybe doubt your game. You don't want to be in that state of the mind coming into Grand Slams,' the 38-year-old Serb said. 'So I'm just glad it all turned out to be perfect for me, in that sense.'
He and Zverev, a 28-year-old German, know each other quite well, on a court and off.
This will be their 14th head-to-head contest on tour dating to 2017 — Djokovic holds an 8-5 advantage — and first since meeting in the semifinals at the Australian Open in January. That one ended after just one set: Djokovic stopped playing because of an injured hamstring, drawing boos from the ticket-buyers, and Zverev defended him.
Their only previous encounter in Paris came back in 2019, and Djokovic won their quarterfinal in three sets.
When Zverev, who credits Djokovic with serving as something of a mentor, looked ahead to Wednesday, he said: 'It's always a privilege to be on court with him."
The other quarterfinal Wednesday will be No. 1 Jannik Sinner against unseeded Alexander Bublik, the first man from Kazakhstan to get this far at any Grand Slam tournament. The first two men's quarterfinals were scheduled for Tuesday and, surprisingly, each one involved an American: defending champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain vs. No. 12 Tommy Paul, and No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy vs. No. 15 Frances Tiafoe.
There was a bit of buzz after first-match losses at tournaments in Monte Carlo and then Madrid about whether Djokovic should not even be thought of as a contender this time around at Roland-Garros, although it is a place where he has claimed the trophy three times. He also is the only player to beat 14-time champion Rafael Nadal more than once at the French Open.
Both of those April setbacks came against unseeded opponents, Alejandro Tabilo and Matteo Arnaldi. Both were over in straight sets.
So Zverev was asked Tuesday whether Djokovic, whose recent woes dropped him to No. 6 in the seedings, might be thought of as a dark horse in Paris.
The premise seemed misguided to Zverev, who is a three-time runner-up at major tournaments — including to Alcaraz at Roland-Garros a year ago and to Sinner at Melbourne Park this year.
'I mean, the guy won 24 Grand Slams. He's never going to be a (dark) horse. He definitely knows how to play tennis,' Zverev said. 'He definitely knows what it means to be on the big stage and to play big matches. There is no doubt about that.'
___
Howard Fendrich has been the AP's tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
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