Novak Djokovic is set to pursue his 15th consecutive French Open quarter-final on Monday after establishing an unwanted record at Roland Garros. The defending champion and 24-time Grand Slam title winner reached the last 16 by overcoming Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in a grueling five-set match, which ended at 3:07 a.m. on Sunday.
This marked the latest finish ever recorded at the French Open.
“I think certain things could have been handled differently,” said the 37-year-old Djokovic.
“There is a certain beauty in winning the match at three in the morning if it is the last of the tournament, but this wasn’t the case.”
On Monday, three-time French Open champion Djokovic faces Argentine 23rd seed Francisco Cerundolo for a place in the last eight.
A victory for Novak Djokovic would mark his 370th Grand Slam match win, setting a new record. Djokovic will face Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo, who has never played against him before.
Cerundolo had earlier stunned world number four Alexander Zverev on clay in Madrid, making it to the quarter-finals, and reached the last 16 in Paris in 2023, where he lost in five sets to Holger Rune of Denmark.
Zverev, who eliminated 14-time champion Rafael Nadal in the first round, faced a tough challenge from Tallon Griekspoor in the third round, overcoming a 4-1 deficit in the final set.
The 27-year-old German is playing under the shadow of an ongoing trial in Berlin over allegations of assaulting an ex-girlfriend. Zverev is in the fourth round at Roland Garros for the seventh consecutive year and has reached the semi-finals in the last three French Opens.
Rune, a two-time quarter-finalist in Paris, defeated Zverev in straight sets in their only previous clay court meeting in Munich in 2022.
Fifth-seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev will face Australian 11th seed Alex de Minaur. Medvedev, a former US Open champion, reached the quarter-finals in 2021 after four successive first-round losses at Roland Garros.
Casper Ruud, who was runner-up to Nadal and Djokovic in the last two years, will compete against Taylor Fritz for a spot in the quarter-finals. Fritz showcased his prowess by hitting 56 winners in a five-set third-round match against Thanasi Kokkinakis on Saturday.
