Is the French Open Novak Djokovic’s time? ‘Only if the unthinkable happens to world No 1 Jannik Sinner’ | Tennis News

Is the French Open Novak Djokovic’s time to finally win a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam? “It could be, but only if the unthinkable happens to world No 1 Jannik Sinner,” claims Sky Sports’ lead commentator Jonathan Overend.

For all his experience, though – the 39-year-old shares the record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles with Margaret Court – Djokovic headed into this year’s French Open with hardly any match preparation.

But the Serb began his latest bid for a record 25th Grand ‌Slam title by crossing a milestone and a tricky hurdle with a 5-7 7-5 6-1 6-4 first-round victory over local hope Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.

Djokovic lost to Croatian qualifier Dino Prizmic at the Italian Open – after two months out due to a right shoulder injury.

But with Carlos Alcaraz, the two-time reigning French Open champion, out with an injured wrist, Djokovic sees a chance to progress all the way through in the lower half of the draw.

“Alcaraz’s absence is a huge blow for the tournament and a huge blow for tennis because the narrative in the men’s game is Sinner and Alcaraz and it’s the rivalry and it’s who’s going to win more,” said Overend.

“Are they going to continue to win the big prizes at the expense of everybody else and now it makes it a situation where we have an overwhelming favourite for a Grand Slam title, more so than we’ve had certainly than I can remember.

“I cannot remember another time when we’ve had a favourite for a Grand Slam. When you consider we’re talking about seven match wins and the best of five sets, there is a lot of jeopardy there. There are a lot of good opponents, a lot of things that can go wrong, over a long period of time in 14 days.

“To have someone who is overwhelming a favourite as Sinner is incredibly rare and is that good for the tournament as a whole? Not really because you want to build a narrative across those two weeks leading up to an extraordinary finale and we’re not going to get that repeat of last year’s classic final.

“The matches between them have not been epics – certainly when you compare it to that Roland-Garros final, so you wonder when the next time is going to be when we see a classic Sinner-Alcaraz match and it’s not going to be this summer which is a huge shame.”

What does it mean in terms of the draw?

If Djokovic was to progress through the draw he would meet top-ranked Sinner, who is on a 29-match winning streak, only in the final.

Overend said: “I’m intrigued with Djokovic coming out in the other half of the draw to Sinner. That, for me, was going to be the interesting draw.

“Being the No 3 seed and coming out in the bottom half of the draw means the highest seed in Sinner’s half is Felix Auger-Aliassime, who is the No 4 seed, and Ben Shelton is No 5, and those are two guys who have really struggled to get match wins over the last few weeks on the clay.

“Admittedly, Shelton did win a clay title in Munich, but that group of players between five and 10 have really struggled this clay season – certainly at Masters level. Not massively sure, why!

“If you’re Sinner you’re thinking, ‘okay’, this has kind of gone in my favour the way the draw has panned out, but with Djokovic being in the other half, it begs the questions what happens if Sinner does get upset early or something happens to him, which can happen.”

He continued: “We’ve seen injuries on the clay such as Alexander Zverev when he was leading Rafael Nadal. We’ve seen people have to pull out through illness as well and this can happen and it could happen to Sinner and if it does, Djokovic is going to say ‘right, this is my time’ because with only one of Sinner and Alcaraz in the draw, it just gives it that little bit of extra incentive for Novak.

“And if the unthinkable happens and Sinner goes early I would fully expect Djokovic to come through that bottom half of the draw.

“Could it be the record-breaking Grand Slam? I think it could be – if something happens to Sinner. If he plays Sinner in the final, the Italian would be the favourite.

“It’s quite sad in a way that we’re scrambling around for storylines or for possible upsets because that’s the beauty of the Grand Slam. You get upsets and I think it’s a sign of how far clear Sinner and Alcaraz are that 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.”

A huge Wimbledon upset?

Sinner will also head into Wimbledon as odds-on favourite to retain his title, but Overend pointed to some shock defeats in the past, most notably when Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were stunned.

Could the unthinkable happen to Sinner?

“With Wimbledon, I was on Centre Court when Lukas Rosol beat Nadal and nobody saw that coming and actually when Nick Kyrgios beat Nadal. The Australian was still a teenager at that time and very few thought an upset was going to happen,” he said.

“I remember giving Mark Chapman from the BBC a tip that Kyrgios might beat Nadal, and Sergiy Stakhovsky beating Roger Federer. They’re few and far between, but they take something extraordinary on the day.

“Stakhovsky was serving and volleying, while Rosol was hitting the cover off the ball every single shot he had. That’s what it took to beat Federer and Nadal on those days and that’s what it’s going to take to beat Sinner at Wimbledon.

“You look around and you think, who could actually do that? Could somebody like Alexander Bublik express himself and play the way he did against Sinner in Halle last summer? Possibly, but over three sets? It just makes it that less likely when you come into the Grand Slam format.

“Sinner is overwhelming favourite for Wimbledon and for every Grand Slam until we see Alcaraz again.”

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