Novak Djokovic on the brink of even more history after grueling win over Musetti at Roland Garros
His five-set victory over the Italian was his 369th career win at a Grand Slam, tying Roger Federer for the all-time record.
In a match that went past 3 a.m. Paris time, Novak Djokovic battled back from two sets to one down to make it past Lorenzo Musetti at Roland Garros on Sunday morning, 7-5, 6-7 (6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-0.
With the third-round victory over the Italian, Djokovic keeps his chances alive of remaining at No. 1—he needs to at least reach the final in Paris to keep the top ranking after the tournament.
But his latest win also put him on the brink of even more history in his already-historic career—it was the 369th Grand Slam win of his career, which ties Roger Federer for most for a man in tennis history.
Djokovic is now 369-49 in his career at majors, an 88.3% winning percentage, while Federer was 369-60, an 86.0% winning percentage.
The Serb will go for his record-breaking 370th Grand Slam win on Monday, as he takes on Francisco Cerundolo in the fourth round.
After two marathon sets and a combined total of almost two-and-a-half hours on court, it looked as though Djokovic might take a two-sets-to-love lead as he brought up a set point up 6-5 in the second set tie-break—but Musetti wasn’t done, ripping an overhead just inside the line to fight it off, and the Italian snuck out the second set.
He then won the third set, 6-2, for a two-sets-to-one lead.
Then, after holding serve in the first game of the fourth, Musetti even threatened to break again, with Djokovic serving at 0-1, 15-30.
But you can never count out someone who’s battled to victory 368 times in their Grand Slam career, and he got to work going for his 369th, digging out that service game for 1-all. Then, after another pair of holds for 2-all, he won 10 of the last 11 games of the match—including the last seven in a row—to run away with it at the end.
He closed it out after four hours and 29 minutes on court with one last massive forehand return winner, his 44th winner of the match.
Djokovic then spoke to the crowd in French, giving praise to his opponent and then thanking the fans for staying, then revealing to them the moment they helped him turn the match around: