On a day of rapidly swirling weather and fortunes, Novak Djokovic emerged from a second perfunctory win against a qualifier to stay in the conversation about who is good enough to stop Rafael Nadal winning his 11th French Open. He could get to the quarter‑finals; once there, he might even find another gear or two, which was his trademark in his pomp.
Certainly the former champion is in shape comparable to that of younger contenders in Alexander Zverev, who took five sets to defeat the world No 60 Dusan Lajovic, and Grigor Dimitrov, who survived a tempestuous battle over four hours and 19 minutes against the American Jared Donaldson, who was reduced at one point to serving under-arm.
Written by Kevin Mitchell at Roland Garros
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/may/30/novak-djokovic-jaume-munar-progress-french-open under the title “Novak Djokovic stands tall among stuttering pretenders to Nadal crown | Kevin Mitchell”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
