French Open, is it time for Novak Djokovic to finally win a record 25th Grand Slam? “It could happen, but only if the unthinkable happens to world number one Jannik Sinner,” says Sky Sports senior commentator Jonathan Overend.
But despite all his experience – the 39-year-old shares the record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles with Margaret Court – Djokovic headed to this year’s French Open with little preparation for the match.
But the Serb has overcome milestones and tricky obstacles to begin his latest bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title. First round 5-7 7-5 6-1 6-4 win over local hopeful Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard..
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Italian Open first round highlights as Dino Prizmic shocks Djokovic
Djokovic lost. Croatia Qualification Dino Prismic of the Italian Open missed two months due to a right shoulder injury.
but Carlos Alcaraz, two-time French Open winner Djokovic, suffering from a wrist injury, sees an opportunity to advance towards the end of the draw.
“Alcaraz’s absence is a huge blow to the tournament and a huge blow to tennis, because the narrative of the men’s game is Sinner and Alcaraz, it’s a competition and who will win more,” Overend said.
“Are they going to keep winning big prizes at the expense of others? And now we have a situation where we are overwhelming favorites for a Grand Slam title, certainly more so than we can remember.
“I can’t remember another time where we’ve played favorites for a Grand Slam. When you think about winning seven games and playing the best of five sets, there’s a lot at stake there. There’s a lot of good opposition in 14 days, a lot of things that can go wrong.
“To have someone as overwhelmingly popular as Sinner is incredibly rare and good for the tournament as a whole. It’s not because we want to build the story over the two weeks leading up to a special finale and we won’t have a repeat of last year’s classic final.
“The match between them was not great, certainly compared to the Roland-Garros final. You wonder when the next one will be, when you see the classic Sinner-Alcaraz match. And it is a great shame that it will not be this summer.”
What does the lottery mean?
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Highlights from the Italian Open final between Jannik Sinner and Casper Ruud
If Djokovic draws, he will only meet in the final against No. 1 Sinner, who is on a 29-game winning streak.
Overend said: “I’m intrigued to see Djokovic come on in the second half of the draw with Sinner. That would be an interesting draw for me.
“Being seeded three and coming out in the bottom half of the draw means the highest seed in Sinner’s half is Felix Auger-Aliassime, the fourth seed, and Ben Shelton is the fifth seed, two guys who have really struggled to get match wins on clay over the past few weeks.
“Of course Shelton won the clay title in Munich, but this group of five to 10 players has really struggled this clay season, certainly not at the masters level, not sure why!
“If you’re Sinner, you’re thinking, ‘Okay’. This is the way the draw went, in my favor, but with Djokovic in the other half, I wonder what will happen if Sinner gets upset early or something happens to him.”
He continued: “We’ve seen Alexander Zverev get injured on clay when he was leading Rafael Nadal. We’ve seen people have to overcome illness. This can happen and it could happen to Sinner as well. If it does, Djokovic will say ‘right, this is my time’ because only one of Sinner and Alcaraz is in the draw, giving Novak a little extra incentive.
“And if the unthinkable happens and Sinner is knocked out early, I would fully expect Djokovic to get through a second-half draw.
“Could it be a record-breaking Grand Slam? I think it could be, if something happens to Sinner. If he plays Sinner in the final, the Italian will be the favorite.
“It’s very sad that because of the beauty of the Grand Slam, we’re scrambling for storylines or possible confusion. I think it’s a sign of how clear Sinner and Alcaraz are that if there’s an upset, you can count on one hand the number of people who have a slim chance of beating Sinner at this year’s French Open or Wimbledon.”
Is the giant Wimbledon mad?
Lukas Rosol shocked the great Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2012.
Sinner will also head to Wimbledon where he is odds-on favorite to retain his title, but Overend pointed to shocking defeats in the past, most notably when he stunned Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Could the unthinkable happen to Sinner?
“I was on center court when Lukas Rosol beat Nadal at Wimbledon and no one saw it happen. In fact, when Nick Kyrgios beat Nadal. The Australian was still a teenager at the time and few people thought the upset would happen,” he said.
“I remember tipping Mark Chapman on the BBC that Kyrgios could beat Nadal and Sergiy Stakhovsky could beat Roger Federer. They are very few, but on that day they take on something special.
Sergiy Stakhovsky surprised the legendary Roger Federer in 2013.
“Stakhovski served and volleyed, Rosol hit covers on every shot he threw. That’s what it took to beat Federer and Nadal back then and that’s what it will take to beat Sinner at Wimbledon.
“You look around and you wonder who can actually do that. Could someone like Alexander Bublik express himself and play the way he did against Sinner in Halle last summer? Possible, but over three sets? Going into a Grand Slam format, that becomes less likely.
“Sinner is the overwhelming favorite for Wimbledon and all the Grand Slams until we see Alcaraz again.”
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