The rain interrupted the game for a long time, at the end of the second set, but it did not save Novak Djokovic, nor did he call the doctor during the first set. The world number 1 bit the wet ocher of the Masters 1000 in Rome this Wednesday in the quarter-finals, against Holger Rune (6-2, 4-6, 6-2). The 20-year-old Dane had already dominated the Serb (who will celebrate his 36th birthday on Monday) in the final of the Paris-Bercy tournament last November.
Djokovic, who will lose the world number 1 spot to Carlos Alcaraz on Monday, delivered a rather worrying performance 11 days from the start of Roland-Garros. He will thus present himself in Paris with an unremarkable record of five wins for three defeats in three tournaments on clay this season.
He was successively stopped in the round of 16 in Monte-Carlo, then in the quarter-finals in Banja Luka, Bosnia, and therefore in Rome, after forfeiting last month in Madrid because of a painful elbow. Titled six times, including last year in the Italian capital, the Serb had not lost there in the quarter-finals for 10 years.
Nadal questioning
The uncertainty is greater than ever before Roland-Garros. Undisputed master of the Porte d’Auteuil, Rafael Nadal (14 wins in Paris) has not been seen in competition for almost four months and his defeat in the second round of the Australian Open, due to a problem to a hip. Alcaraz will be the favorite, but his defeat in Rome in the third round, Monday against the unknown Hungarian Fábián Marozsán (135th in the world), leaves wondering.
Rune is far from his worries. The Dane will face in the semi-finals of the Rome tournament the world number 4, the Norwegian Casper Ruud, or the Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo (31st), opposed on Wednesday evening.