Novak Djokovic suddenly looks Slam-ready | Roland Garros Wrap, Day 3

Stream every match from Roland Garros on the Tennis Channel app, each day after 11 p.m. ET. 3 to Stream, our daily wrap of the action in Paris, highlights you three matches you'll want to read about—and then replay.

This was not a day of surprises at Roland Garros. Novak Djokovic, Coco Gauff, Alexander Zverev, Jessica Pegula, Jack Draper: all these Top 10 seeds advanced with hardly a hiccup. Even the most compelling early upset, Cam Norrie’s five-set reverse comeback win over Daniil Medvedev, was hardly a shock, considering the Russian’s oft-expressed aversion to clay.

As always, though, there were stories and results of interest: Here’s a look at three matches that you can stream on the Tennis Channel app. One features a slump-ending triumph; one has a legend defying rumors of his demise; and one shows us a gradually improving American getting what may be her most important win yet.

Norrie, happy to be “the underdog again,” beats Medvedev in a slump-snapping marathon

Cam Norrie d. Daniil Medvedev, 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 1-6, 7-5

👉 Stream the full match replay HERE

“I think it just comes down to enjoying the sport,” Norrie said on Tuesday, when he was asked how he has managed to stay positive, even as his long-running rankings decline has dragged on into its second year. A Top 10 player in 2022, the Brit nearly fell into triple digits earlier this season, and came to Paris a still-stunningly low 81.

Enjoyment is a theme we’ve heard from other players of late, most prominently Carlos Alcaraz. The Spaniard has talked this spring about letting thoughts of rankings and results make him nervous. In Monte Carlo, he said he shrugged all of that off and just tried to enjoy playing the way he likes to play. His titles in Monte Carlo and Rome speak for themselves.

Norrie says he had a similar experience around the same time, and came to the same conclusion. As with Alcaraz, the catalyst was a first-round loss in Miami.

“I really took a time for myself to analyze my career, analyze what’s going on,” Norrie said. “I think it was just more too much expectation. I think now I’m just enjoying the tennis.

“Just want to be who I am and react how I want to act and be myself…You’re the underdog again, finally. You can go and play.”

Still, Norrie likely didn’t enjoy seeing Medvedev across from his name in the first round. The Russian was 4-0 against him before today, and he looked sure to make it 5-0 when he came back from two sets down to take a 5-3 lead in the fifth set.

But Medvedev, aside from playing on his least-favorite surface, has been in his own slump this season. He’s fallen out of the Top 10 for the first time since 2018. At the Australian Open, he lost in the second round to Learner Tien after dropping the first two sets, winning the next two, and serving for the match in the fifth. This defeat would prove eerily similar.

Serving for the match at 5-4 in the fifth, Medvedev couldn’t make a shot. He tried and missed an inexplicable dropper to go down 0-15. He overhit a forehand into the net for 0-30. He hit a forehand long for 0-40. And he sent a backhand long on break point.

Just want to be who I am and react how I want to act and be myself…You’re the underdog again, finally. You can go and play. Cam Norrie

If there’s a lesson to those misses, it’s that Medvedev struggles to attack when he’s nervous. He’s a natural defender and counter-puncher, which means that grabbing the initiative and creating pace takes him slightly out of his comfort zone, and it showed at that clutch moment.

Medvedev, who has a history of early losses in Paris, sounded unfazed.

“It’s just tennis,” he said of his losses to Tien and Norrie. “The career is long, so some matches I won like this. I wouldn’t think too much about it, but it’s unfortunate situation in both matches.”

Could Medvedev profit from taking a step back and trying to appreciate playing for its own sake, the way Norrie and Alcaraz say they have? Getting off clay sounds like a good way to start.

Djokovic suddenly looks Slam-ready

Novak Djokovic d. Mackenzie McDonald, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3

👉 Stream the full match replay HERE

Djokovic took a few moments to savor his return to Court Philippe Chatrier, the site of his last great win, in the Olympic gold-medal match last summer. But the good vibes in the stadium didn’t last long. Wind was whipping, clouds were moving in, rain was threatening, and clay was getting in the GOAT’s eyes. By the middle of the first set, he had had enough. After a multi-game harangue, Djokovic managed to get the tournament referee to close the roof, even as play went on outdoors on the rest of the grounds.

“Last time I was there playing was finals of Olympics. Of course I did relive those memories that were wonderful,” he said. “But, you know, it was quite challenging conditions I think at the beginning of the match with the wind and rain and everything that was happening.”

Inside or outside, sun or rain or wind, Djokovic wasn’t going to lose this match. As the scores indicate, he had less trouble with McDonald than he did with the ref and the chair umpire. Djokovic hit 32 winners to just 14 for McDonald; he was broken just once; and he moved and defended the corners of the court the way he always has. There was no sign of the irritation and hesitation that plagued him until his title run in Geneva last week.

“I think it was good move to go to Geneva, to be honest, because I was struggling a little bit with confidence level, you know, doubting my game a bit,” Djokovic said. “So it was good that I got four matches under my belt, won a title. Coming into Roland Garros, it feels different than I had compared to the feeling I had three weeks ago.”

“Let’s see how far I can go here, but I have a good feeling for now.”

Djokovic is in a helpful quarter. Alexander Zverev is the top seed, and Francisco Cerundolo, a potential threat, is already out. After a season of seeming decline, Djokovic suddenly looks like he’s in Grand Slam form. Are you surprised?

D.C.’s Baptiste, with a career-high ranking, gets a quality Slam win

Hailey Baptiste d. Beatriz Haddad Maia, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1

👉 Stream the full match replay HERE

Contrary to what you may hear, not every fan at Roland Garros is Parisian. Or French. Or even European. The proof could be heard on Court 7 this morning, where dueling Western Hemisphere fanbases traded cheers.

“Let’s go Hailey, let’s go,” the fans with American accents chanted, in that rigid Stateside way.

“Olay, olay, olay, Bee-a, Bee-a,” the (much louder) group waving Brazilian flags responded, to urge on Haddad Maia.

Brazil will always have the edge of the U.S. when it comes to sports chants, but today, in a minor surprise, it was the 70th-ranked American, Baptiste, who prevailed over the 23rd-seeded Haddad Maia.

Every month seems to bring another young U.S. woman to the forefront: This year alone, we’ve seen Ashlyn Krueger, Peyton Stearns and McCartney Kessler have mini-breakthroughs. Now Baptiste, a 23-year-old D.C. native with six years on tour under her belt, is making her move. With little fanfare, she’s up to a career high 70, and now she has punctuated that rise with a win over a seed at a Slam.

Baptiste is not exactly what she first appears. While she walks with an unhurried gait between points, that shouldn’t be confused with a lack of intensity. While she can gun her Western forehand, she’s not a one-shot ball basher; she had good hands, too. And while she’s American, she’s comfortable on clay.

Baptiste, who works with Frances Tiafoe’s brother, beat Haddad Maia with a methodical mix of strong serves and ground strokes, defensive speed and finesse—she loves her drops and lobs.

At the end of the third set, Haddad Maia and her supporters refused to go quietly. But Baptiste kept her poise and showed that she has the weapons to shut the door.

“She has quality,” Haddad Maia said of Baptiste. “She can play with speed. She has good slice. She can lob, do drop shots. She has all the skills…I knew she could be dangerous, but that’s tennis.”