Injured, out of sorts and occasionally out of his mind, Novak Djokovic showed enough resilience to defeat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and book his place in the last 16 of the French Open.
His Spanish opponent threw just about everything at him bar perhaps the kitchen sink but, despite playing some of his best tennis, it just wasn’t enough.
The 7-6, 7-6, 6-2 scoreline, however, didn’t tell the full story of the fact that Djokovic had found himself in an almighty scrap.
During the match, he needed medical treatment on his left thigh, his usually such consistent tennis blew hot and cold from his serve to his groundstrokes, and he had an occasionally spikey relationship both with the crowd and himself.
It reached a crescendo after winning a second straight tiebreak which he followed with a series of fist pumps and a roar. It felt like a reaction as much to lift himself up as get the Philippe Chatrier crowd on his side.
It seemed to have the desired effect, he immediately broke Davidovich Fokina in his opening service game and an already improbable comeback quickly turned into an impossible one.
The Spaniard clearly had belief he had the game to beat Djokovic – he’d won their last encounter on clay in Monaco last year – and, for much of the match, he did.
But the 22-time Grand Slam champion is like an obdurate brick wall even when not playing vintage tennis and the manner in which he scrapped his way to victory will only further instil in him the belief he can make it an outright record of 23 in two weekends’ time.
In contrast, Davidovich Fokina will be left to ponder what might have been. He had a chance to serve out the set at 6-5 only to be broken and lose the subsequent tiebreak.
Undeterred, he twice broke the Djokovic serve and had set points with the Serb serving to stay in it at 6-5 only for Djokovic to nullify the threat and win another tiebreak after two and three quarter hours of tennis.
When Djokovic, who needed ice on his left thigh after that set, broke him to love at the start of the third set, the result quickly became an inevitably.
Afterwards, he said: “It was a very physical match. We played two hours in the first two sets. He’s an amazing fighter, an amazing player, not many weaknesses in the game. He played a great match.”
