By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
World no. 3 male tennis player Novak Djokovic began his French Open title bid with a lopsided victory over Aleksandar Kovacevic- 6.3, 6.2, 7.6- last May 30, 2023, held in Paris, France.
The Serbian powerhouse wasted no time and immediately buckled to work to crush his American opponent during the opening set.
Djokovic’s consistent forehand volley proved to be just too much for Kovacevic and found no solutions on how to neutralize the Serbian’s clever baseline game.
Kovacevic attempted to slow things down in the second set when he made Djokovic circle around the court with his drop shots but the two-time Roland Garros champion always recovered and countered with his net game.
As the American mixed his offense with a series of long lob shots and unorthodox drops, Djokovic always perfectly anticipated the ball and scored several demoralizing winners to go up 2-0 in the game.
The third set came out to be the most competitive one as Kovacevic was able to find his rhythm early and started to out-point Djokovic in the long rallies.
Kovacevic adjusted well with his groundstrokes and unleashed quicker top spins to fend off Djokovic’s serve and volley game to keep himself within striking distance.
However, Djokovic just got too many tricks in his sleeves and contained the American’s powerful forehand down-the-line shots with his varied slice strokes and chops.
In the end, it was Djokovic who showed more gas in the tank and just punched a ticket to the second round of the 2023 French Open.
Next up for Djokovic is Marton Fucsovics of Hungary who is coming off a four-set victory over Hugo Grenier of France.
