Djokovic in the round of 16 at Roland Garros

Luigi Ansaloni

02 June 2023 ( edit 02 June 2023 | 23:13)

Novak Djokovic flies to the round of 16 of Roland Garros, but to conquer his third triumph in Paris and reach 23 slams he will have to do much, much better than the one shown today against the Spanish Davidovich Fokina, seeded number 29 (7- 6 (4) 7-6 (5) 6-2) which put Serbia in trouble but which could really make his life even more difficult, if only he had made a set point in the second and kept the serve at 6-5 of the first set.

Not at the best

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Sure, Djokovic is still on the other side, but he certainly wasn’t the best version of the number 3 seed, as indeed he wasn’t, not even remotely, for the entire season on clay: foul, nervous, even slow on certain occasions, especially of legs and thought. If we had to bet on someone right now, we would hardly do it on Nole, but it’s also true that this has happened many other times in the career of the former number one in the world, and very often he was right. In form or not, Djokovic still hits, for the fourteenth time in a row, the entrance to the second week in Paris, the eighth final number 60 in his career: obviously extraordinary numbers.

win for karen

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In the fourth round also the Russian Karen Khachanov, semifinalist of the Australian Open, who continues her good season beating, in a beautiful and at times crazy match, the Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis (6-4 6-1 3-6 7-6 (5 ) the final score.

ALCARAZ

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The bookmakers had so much confidence in Denis Shapovalov in the challenge to the world number one Carlos Alcaraz that they gave the victory of the Spaniard, to those who wanted to bet, at a truly negligible figure, around 1.03. As is often the case, they weren’t wrong. Those who expected a spectacular game, mindful of the good old days of the Canadian, were disappointed. Alcaraz flies to the fourth round, where there will therefore be the eagerly awaited match against Musetti, destroying Shapo in three sets, 6-0 6-4 6-2, and showing once again who is the real favorite of this Roland Garros. The only moment in which there was a match was at the beginning of the second set, where the phenomenal 20-year-old from Murcia had an empty pass, as always happens to him during his matches (and thank goodness), where the Canadian had gone ahead 4-1 and there seemed to be a match. Illusion that did not last long, because Alcaraz is Alcaraz and within himself, in addition to an innate class, he also has a competitive rage that is no less. In less than no time the n.1 thus recovered the break and put in a series of eight games in a row that closed the speech. Musetti to try to beat this Alcaraz, 3 out of 5, will have to play the perfect match and play at his best at a wild pace. Can she do it? Nothing is impossible but no favorites. All easy for Stefanos Tsitsipas: 6-2 6-2 6-3 to Diego Schwartzman, a distant relative of the one from last years, where he managed to put the big names in a bit of difficulty.