By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Novak Djokovic began his French Open bid with a convincing victory over home bet Pierre-Hugues Herbert- 6.4, 7.6, 6.4- on May 29, 2024, at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris France.
With the main aim of extending his record of 24 total Grand Slam championship titles won, the superstar from Serbia buckled to work early in the game and overwhelmed the young French with his varied offensive attacks.
Djokovic started the match slow and committed an uncharacteristic double fault possession in his service game but after he broke Herbert midway through the opening frame, things started swinging his way and used a late rally to clinch an early 1-0 lead.
Herbert gave Djokovic the business in the second set as he stormed back with his powerful baseline attacks that kept him within striking distance.
After scoring his lone break point of the game, Herbert successfully forced a tiebreaker in the second set but it was Djokovic who dominated the extension period.
Djokovic’s court mastery propelled him to the tiebreaker as he forced Herbert into several difficult positions to score, dropping the ball in the no man’s land while pushing him to the back with a series of top-spin lob shots.
After two grueling sets, Djokovic found his rhythm and was flawless in the third and last set, overpowering his way with his signature down-the-line backhand shots that put the crowd on their feet.
Herbert had his moments in the third after scoring a difficult off-the-bounce forehand winner while following it up with a powerful smash that revived his hopes of stealing a set.
However, in the final seven long rallies of the match, Djokovic went beast mode and swept them all to cap off the win with a 3-0 finish.
With the win, Djokovic successfully advanced to the second round of the Grand Slam event and will be squaring off against Roberto Carballes Baena today.
