Djokovic tries to return to championship form
Former No. 1 player, seeded 20th this year, reaches third round of the French Open.
PARIS — Despite all of Novak Djokovic’s success over the years — the 12 major championships, the career Grand Slam, the time ranked No. 1 — he still finds himself searching for selfconfidence these days.
Djokovic was reflective and revealing Wednesday after moving into the third round at the French Open by virtue of a self-described upand-down performance in a 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4 victory over 155th-ranked Jaume Munar of Spain. Both of Djokovic’s matches so far have been against qualifiers; neither win was particularly impressive.
“At the moment, I’m not playing at the level I wish to, but at the same time, I understand that it is the process that obviously takes time,” said Djokovic, whose seeding of No. 20 is his lowest at a Slam in 12 years. “And I’m trying to not give up.”
At least he got through in straight sets. Other leading men were forced to work a lot harder: No. 2-seeded Alexander Zverev, No. 4 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 19 Kei Nishikori all faced two-setsto-one deficits and all emerged to win Wednesday.
Zverev was down by a set and a break early — and down a racket he’d obliterated by then too — before collecting himself and coming back to beat 60th-ranked Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 2-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Dimitrov was two points from defeat against 21-year-old American Jared Donaldson but won 6-7 (2), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 in a marathon that lasted 4 hours 19 minutes and featured a couple of underhand serves by the cramping Donaldson. Nishikori got past Benoit Paire of France 6-3, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
The only top-16-seeded man or woman who lost was No. 12 Sam Querrey of the U.S., to Gilles Simon of France, and Querrey hasn’t been past the third round in 12 appearances at Roland Garros.
Among the women, No. 1 Simona Halep shook off a slow start in a postponed first-round match to defeat Alison Riske of the U.S. 2-6, 6-1, 6-1, while second-round winners included reigning major champions Caroline Wozniacki and Sloane Stephens, along with No. 4 Elina Svitolina, No. 8 Petra Kvitova and No. 13 Madison Keys.