Novak Djokovic arrived in Paris for his French Open title defence with ample reasons to doubt himself. He is struggling badly for form, there has been a significant upheaval in his support team, and the 98‑time ATP title winner still has not even reached a single final this season.
He is still Novak Djokovic, though, and still the best player in the world over the past 52 weeks, meaning his presence alone marks him as one of the tournament favourites and a true force. On Tuesday night, he began his title defence in the French capital with a hard‑fought 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory against Pierre-Hugues Herbert, a French wildcard, to reach the second round as he continued his search for form.
It was not always easy. In front of a packed, partisan crowd furiously cheering on their own player, Djokovic struggled to summon his best tennis in Herbert’s service games as the Frenchman kept Djokovic at bay with his wicked kick serve and forays into the net.
“Monte Carlo, Rome, and Geneva tournaments started really well for me,” Djokovic said.
“First matches I played were great. Then second matches, third matches was quite different. So I don’t want to get too excited.
“I thought it was a good performance for me, solid. Of course I could have done better, I think, on return games, but also credit to him for serving very well, for changing things up, for seeing every time I would step back for second serve, you know, give him a little bit different look, he would see that, he would come in.”
While Djokovic was still far from his best, with too many unforced errors off both groundstrokes during the second set, he was sharper in the decisive moments. From 5-6 in the second set, Djokovic won nine of the next 10 points, establishing a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak before easily seeing out the set. After struggling to break Herbert down on his serve throughout the final set, he sealed the match as the Frenchman’s resistance finally fell and he served a double-fault on match point.
This event marks Djokovic’s first grand slam tournament since splitting with his longtime coach Goran Ivanisevic, and after travelling on the ATP tour with the former doubles No 1 Nenad Zimonjic he is joined in Paris by Boris Bosnjakovic, who previously worked as head coach in Djokovic’s tennis centre in Belgrade.