@SportsHorn
After two relatively easy victories at this years French Open it appeared the Novak Djokovic we all saw hoist the winners trophy a year ago had perhaps returned. Just maybe we got ahead of ourselves as Djokovic needed five sets in the third round to survive a scare from Diego Schwartzman winning 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Djokovic at times looked unbeatable and at times looked miserable. In the end, the 12-time Grand Slam winner outlasted his less experienced opponent dominating the final two sets of the match.
“Playing a five-setter is, at this stage, is good, you know,” replied Djokovic.” I enjoyed playing, really, even though of course at times I was not playing my best, especially for first three sets, but, you know, fourth and fifth set went completely my way.”
With dark clouds and light rain overhead, Djokovic broke Schwartzman to go up 3-1 in the first set but then gave it back three games later. Schwartzman then capitalized on an awful service game from Djokovic which included two poorly played drop shot attempts and took the first set 7-5. The newest Lacoste ambassador with 20 unforced errors in the opening set.
The Djokovic of old suddenly appeared in the second set. He looked much more confident winning 90 percent of his first serve points, didn’t face a break point along the way and had 13 winners.
In the third, the two players held serve until the ninth game when Djokovic hit a forehand crosscourt long and wide giving his opponent a break. In the following game Schwartzman managed to save four break points, held serve and grabbed himself a two sets to one lead. Djokovic was in jeopardy of becoming the first defending champion to lose prior to the round of 16 since 2004.
However, from the fourth set on, it was all Djokovic. He dominated Schwartzman, who had never defeated a top-10 player before, moving him around the court and winning the majority of the points improving his career record to 6-2 in five set matches at Roland-Garros.
“Well, he definitely deserved the applause he got in the end of the match, because he was fighting, he was playing really well,” said Djokovic. “He was the better player probably for first three sets. And then the fourth and fifth set went the way I hoped that the whole match can go. So I’m glad that I have some positives, of course, to take from today’s match. I was mentally still, you know, strong and as calm as I could be, even though I was two sets to one down I kept believing I could break his resistance. It was just too many unforced errors from myself.”
Djokovic did have a run in with chair umpire Carlos Ramos midway through the fourth set. The veteran official gave the world No. 2 his second time violating warning which shortly thereafter lead to an unsportsmanlike warning for bad language. The two exchanged words in English for about 30 seconds with Djokovic wondering what he said that instituted a warning. Ramos said he didn’t like Djokovic’s attitude after he had directed some words at him and didn’t like the way he hit a ball after losing a point.
Djokovic, now has 58 career match wins at Roland-Garros which is third all-time. He will face a tricky opponent in Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the next round. Ramos-Violas seeded 19th, also needed a five set win in his third round match outlasting Lucas Pouille.
“It was good to be part of five-set match. You know, I didn’t play too many of the five setters the last couple of years. I see a lot of good things in it. I think it will put me in a good place mentally, as well. Physically I don’t think it’s going to affect me at all. You know, I have had many situations like this before where just, you know, having a day to recover is more than enough.”
