Monte-Carlo: Djokovic will “do everything for a peak of form at Roland-Garros”

Thomas Siniecki, Media365: published on Tuesday, April 12, 2022 at 11:26 p.m.

Do not panic. This is the creed that Novak Djokovic wanted to convey to journalists, when analyzing his early elimination at the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo on Tuesday, against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. And heading for the sequel, above all.

Novak Djokovic was not particularly looking to sound the alarm on Tuesday, despite the defeat on his debut at the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (6-3, 6-7, 6-1): “Of course I’m disappointed, nobody likes to lose. We are professionals, we want to win. I’ll look with the team, we’ll go back to the blackboard hoping that it will be better in Belgrade.” The world No. 1, who had not played since February in Dubai, clearly stated his total physical eclipse in the third set. He’s got the goal right and says it again: “I’m going to do everything to be in top form at Roland-Garros, that’s the main objective of this season on earth. I knew I would need time to feel good.”

The Serb is not worried, especially since he knows how to rely on his experience to support his words: “Historically, I have never played very well in the tournaments which open the season on earth.” Since it is precisely this Masters 1000 of Monte-Carlo which starts this period, particularly for “Djoko” who does not go to America in the winter to play any tournaments on earth, it is true that the latter haven’t made it past the quarter-finals since 2016, eliminated successively by Jiri Vesely (second round), David Goffin (quarters), Dominic Thiem (eighths), Daniil Medvedev (quarters), Daniel Evans (eighths) and therefore Davidovich Fokina (second round). It was much better at the start of his career, with two wins, three finals and three halves from 2008 to 2015.