PARIS (AP) — Novak Djokovic placed ice packs around his neck and on top of his head during changeovers to keep cool amid the Paris heat wave at the French Open on Wednesday.
The 39-year-old Djokovic was pushed by 74th-ranked French player Valentin Royer — who is 15 years younger than him — for more than 3½ hours before he reached the third round with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (7), 6-3 victory.
For the fourth straight day of this year’s tournament, the temperature
rose beyond 32 degrees Celsius (90 Fahrenheit).
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 the 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 getting beat in his only clay-court match before the tournament. He lost to 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 Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, another Frenchman, 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.
One duo 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 potentially a bigger test against either 19-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca or the 20-year-old Prizmic, who were playing later. Fonseca has been touted as a future Grand Slam contender, while Djokovic himself pointed to big things ahead for Prizmic after their meeting in Rome.
Later, second-seeded Alexander Zverev was playing Tomas Machac in the night session.
Elena Rybakina, this year’s Australian Open winner, was beaten by Ukrainian opponent Yuliia Starodubtseva 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4).
Also advancing were in-form Ukrainians Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk, who are coming off trophies at the Madrid Open and Italian Open, respectively.
The seventh-seeded Svitolina beat Kaitlin Quevedo 6-0, 6-4 to extend her winning streak to eight matches. The 15th-seeded Kostyuk beat Katie Volynets 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3 to extend her winning streak to 13 matches.
Four-time champion Iga Swiatek improved her career record at Roland Garros to 42-3 by eliminating 35th-ranked Sara Bejlek 6-2, 6-3.
Swiatek won Roland Garros in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Swiatek next faces Magda Linette in the first all-Polish meeting at Roland Garros in the professional era (since 1968). Linette eliminated 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.
Also, 11th-seeded Belinda Bencic beat American opponent Caty McNally 6-4, 6-0.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
