Novak Djokovic has slammed the French Open crowd for showing him “no respect” during a hostile clash with local hope Valentin Royer.
The 39-year-old third seed was pushed by the world No.74, who is 15 years younger than him, for more than three-and-a-half hours before he reached the third round with a 6-3 6-2 6-7 (7-9) 6-3 victory.
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It was the second-straight match the Serbian has beaten a Frenchman after knocking out Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round.
Speaking after the match, Djokovic said he hoped he wouldn’t face any more locals given the hostile atmosphere that saw him booed throughout the match.
“I hope I won’t play any more French players for the rest of the tournament,” he said.
At one point during the match, Djokovic clapped back at the crowd after he was getting booed and the umpire called for calm.
“Ladies and gentleman please have some respect for both of the players,” the umpire said.
Djokovic quickly said, “they have no respect, no respect.”
The 24-time grand slam champion will now play rising Brazilian star Joao Fonseca in the third round.
“It was a very, very difficult match in difficult conditions. A big challenge for me. … Experience helped me a lot,” he said.
“That was really, really hard. I’ve played two matches and I feel like I’ve played for two weeks.”
When Djokovic won a key point early in the fourth set with a forehand that he whipped around the net post from far off the court, the 24-time Grand Slam champion waved his arms toward the crowd inside Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Djokovic wasted a chance to close Wednesday’s match out earlier when he missed a backhand long in the third-set tiebreaker then required four more match points in his final service game before a forehand from Royer finally landed in the net to conclude a long rally.
Before arriving in Paris, Royer had earned only one tour-level win across 11 tournaments he played this season.
Djokovic came to Roland Garros with questions over his form after losing in his only clay-court match before the tournament. He was beaten by Croatian qualifier Dino Prizmic at the Italian Open after two months out due to a right shoulder injury.
But Djokovic is playing himself back into form after coming back from a set down to beat Mpetshi Perricard in a first-round match that lasted nearly three hours.
Djokovic improved to 14-0 in his career against Frenchmen at Roland Garros and reached the third round in Paris for a 21st straight year. He raised the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy in 2016, 2021 and 2023.
A pair of Djokovic fans inside the main stadium held up a sign with a goat on it – for ‘Greatest of All Time’ – that read ‘39 is the new 29.’
Up next for Djokovic is a potentially bigger test against 19-year-old Fonseca, who demonstrated his powers of recovery by coming from two sets down to beat Dino Prizmic 3- 6 4-6 6-3 6-1 6-2.
Russian 11th seed Andrey Rublev was given a three-hour workout in the Paris heat in a 6-1 1-6 6-3 7-6 (5) victory over Argentina’s Camilo Ugo Carabelli to move into the third round.
— With AAP
