Long before he defeated Lorenzo Musetti in the latest ever finish at the French Open, Novak Djokovic trudged back to the baseline, seemingly amused by the sheer ludicrousness of the situation.
Almost two hours earlier, he had led Lorenzo Musetti by a set and a break, his title defence apparently firmly on track. Now here he was, with the time fast approaching 2am, relieved merely to have held serve at the start of the fourth set after losing all but four of the previous 17 games.
Ordinarily Djokovic would have been, if not in his element, then certainly within his comfort zone. Three years ago he trailed Musetti, a flamboyant 22-year-old Italian with a poetic one-handed backhand, by two sets to love on Court Philippe Chatrier. By the end, Musetti was a broken man, his cramping body racked with pain as he retired two games from defeat.
With his back to the wall once more, on the same court, against the same opponent, and with a grand slam title on the line – not to mention the No 1 ranking, which he will relinquish to Jannik Sinner if he fails to make the final, and may relinquish even then – you would have expected to find Djokovic at his most defiant. Particularly given that Musetti beat him for the first time on the red clay courts of Monte Carlo last year.
But the 24-time grand slam champion has been far from his all-conquering self this year, and so it was again. The usual fist pumps and roars of belligerence, the trademark willingness to take on the world, were nowhere to be seen. Instead, Djokovic grinned up to his wife, Jelena, who was urging him on with both fists clenched. Then he engaged in a gentle self-parody. “Idemo,” he mouthed silently – Serbian for “Let’s go” – before following up with a noiseless “Yeahhhh.” It might have been the most low-key self-exhortation of Djokovic’s career; an imitation of passion, rather than the thing itself.
With a smile still lingering on his lips, Djokovic turned to resume battle. Meanwhile, Jelena struggled to suppress a giggle. Were they even taking this seriously? It would have been easy enough not to, given the tournament organisers’ decision to squeeze in an extra match beforehand. Then again, the backlog of matches caused by the atrocious weather in Paris over the past week has made for desperate times; here was an accordingly desperate measure. Djokovic and Musetti eventually took to the court more than two hours after the scheduled start time of 8.15pm, which was surely asking for trouble, given that their last meeting on Chatrier spanned almost three and a half hours.
But as it turned out, Djokovic wasn’t kidding.
A quarter of an hour later, a Musetti service game that began with the Serb bent double on the baseline after a sinew-sapping 21-shot exchange, ended with Djokovic crushing a forehand to bring up a second break point, then converting it with a bold foray to the net. As the Italian’s forehand pass drifted wide, Djokovic looked up to Jelena again. This time, there was steel in his eyes, a look full of conviction and intent and belief. Djokovic waved his arms to stoke up what remained of the crowd. They barely needed the encouragement; they had been chanting his name with gusto since the beginning of the set. Now they did so again.
“The crowd definitely got me going,” said Djokovic, still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, after the cheers had faded. “I really needed that push, I really needed that energy. At 2-2 in the fourth, they started chanting my name, and I just felt a great new wave of willpower and energy. I think I was a different player from that moment onwards.”
So he was. Musetti salvaged just one more game, Djokovic eventually closing out a 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory at 3.07am, a tournament record. It was another entry in the record books for the Serb – a dubious honour on this occasion, perhaps, but one he was happy to accept. If there was a debate to be had about the sport’s latest scheduling farce, it was a subject for another day.
“I don’t want to get into it,” said Djokovic. “I have my opinions, but I think there are great things to talk about as we are talking about this this match today.
“I don’t want to be talking about the schedule. I think some things could have been handled in a different way but, you know, there’s beauty as well, I guess, winning the match at 3.30am if it’s the last one of the tournament. But it’s not, so I’m going to have to switch [on] all of my young genes and try to recover as quick as possible.”
After an indifferent few months by his standards, many have wondered if Djokovic still has the motivation to win a 25th major. This victory was a most eloquent riposte.