A heavy schedule was completed despite the rain still disrupting play at Roland Garros though play on the main show courts continued as normal with their respective roofs in place.
I started swinging through the ball more, great down the line backhands, serve was good, at times lost the rhythm a bit, but generally a good performance considering not the greatest form I had leading up to Roland-Garros Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic was amongst those who progressed into the third round with relative ease as he not only continued his title defence but also put his lack of results and shock results in Rome and Geneva behind him.
He also parted company with Goran Ivanisevic last March and has still to replace him as coach which might be one of the reasons why this year, he arrived in Paris without a title to his name nd not playing to his usual high standard.
He explained in a Eurosport interview that the rest of his team, however, was still in place.
“I have Boris Bosnjakovic here with me. He is someone I worked with in the first phases of my professional career, he was an assistant coach, he was travelling a bit, and then he was a main coach in the tennis centre we have in Belgrade,” Djokovic said.
“For several years he’s been working on several different projects we have together on methodology and video analytics, so he has been the one providing insights to my next opponent’s game, to my own game, which me and the rest of the team members then analyse. He’s here, I invited him to come in and be with us.
“I’m enjoying my time with him so far, I’ve known him for a long time, as I’ve known Nenad Zimonjic, who has been with me for the last couple of tournaments. I’m comfortable with these guys for the moment. Honestly, I don’t want to rush my decision.
“I think I have quite a bit of experience and know what needs to be done but I also do need someone who has played tennis and knows tennis, I need eyes on the side of the court.
“Because you can’t see everything you’re doing, even though after many years you are self-aware, you need someone to tell you if you are doing something wrong or not. So far, it’s been going well and let’s see what happens after this tournament.”
On this occasion the three-time French Open champion said he was happy with his performance in defeating Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena 6-4 6-1 6-2 which showed a marked improvement on his opening match victory over Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
The Serbian was in complete control as he set up a third-round tie against Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti who in the evening match, dispatched another local favourite, the entertaining Gael Monfils, 7-5 6-1 6-4.
“I did like it, particularly in the second and third set. The crucial game at 5-4 in the first set, where I had some really good points and made the break that allowed me to clinch the first set,” Djokovic added.
“After that I felt like he maybe backed down a little bit because he wasn’t missing, he started very well.
“Then I started swinging through the ball more, great down the line backhands, serve was good, at times lost the rhythm a bit, but generally a good performance considering not the greatest form I had leading up to Roland-Garros.
“The last couple of matches I had were really good, promising for the rest of the tournament.”
In fact, Djokovic broke his opponent seven times and whipped 43 winners past him and made just 24 unforced errors.
The 37-year-old added: “At this age I wouldn’t really be competing at the slams and continuing to play professional tennis if I didn’t believe that I possess quality to go all the way to the title match.
“I still of course sense that I have the game and I have the goods to go far. But as I said in the press conference prior to the start of the tournament, I don’t want to get too much ahead of the present day, because I haven’t had really a great form as a lead-up to Roland Garros. So, I have to keep my expectations a bit lower.”
In other action Daniil Medvedev wasn’t tested by Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic who retired whilst trailing 6-1 5-0 citing some illness.
The two-time finalist and seventh seed Casper Ruud, had a few problems but eventually advanced past Spain’s Alejandro Davidovic Fokina 7-6(5) 1-6 6-3 4-6 6-3.
The 12th seed from the US, Taylor Fritz ousted Dusan Lajovic 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4 but his American compatriot, the 25th seeded Frances Tiafoe crashed out to Canada’s Denis Shapovalov 6-7(4) 6-4 6-2 6-4.
Slovakia’s Josepf Kovalik shocked the 18th-seeded Russian, Karen Khachanov from two sets down 4-6 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-4.
The Australian seventh Alex de Minaur took out Spain’s Jaume Munar 7-5 6-1 6-4 while the 14th seed, Tommy Paul of the US eased past Italy’s flamboyant veteran Fabio Fognini 6-1 6-0 6-2 while Canada’s Felix Auger Aliassime dismissed Henri Squire of Germany 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-2 and fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev followed up his win over Nadal with another strong performance to eliminate Belgian David Goffin 7-6(4) 6-2 6-2.
Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, Poland’s Hubert Hurkaz, two Argentines Francisco Cerundolo and Tomas Martin Etcheverry, plus Germany’s Jan Lennard Struff ,all advanced into round three.
Holger Rune just scraped through
(Photo by Mateo Villalba/Getty Images)
In the men’s match of the day Denmark’s Holger Rune, seeded 13, recovered from 5-0 down in the fifth set math-breaker to deny Italy’s Flavio Cobolli causing the upset of the day to eventually secure a tight 6-4 6-3 3-6 3-6 7-6[10-7] victory.
“Yeah, not a great start to the match tiebreak, obviously. I just switched my brain off a little bit and just tried to go for my shots,” Rune said.
“Then I got great contact on one return at 5-love. Gained some confidence and started to hit my shots better, more freedom, got back on track. He hit a crazy passing shot down the line on a crucial moment. Just happy that I kept fighting.”
