Djokovic stunned in quarterfinal
Twelve-time major winner beaten by 72nd-ranked Marco Cecchinato
PARIS — It was difficult to discern which was less likely — that 12-time major champion Novak Djokovic would falter in his French Open quarterfinal or that Marco Cecchinato, who never won a Grand Slam match until last week and once faced a possible ban for losing on purpose, would rise to the occasion.
Either way, the outcome Tuesday was stunning.
Djokovic, bothered by neck and leg problems, went from two sets down to the verge of forcing a fifth, but he frittered away good chances and in the end was beaten by the 72nd-ranked Cecchinato, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 1-6, 7-6 (11), in a rollicking match filled with engaging exchanges and drama.
“A hard one to swallow,” a glum Djokovic acknowledged after a brief news conference, in which he delivered clipped answers and said he might not play in the upcoming grass-court season.
Cecchinato is the lowestranked French Open semifinalist in 19 years and the first Italian man to make it that far at any major in 40 years.
Cecchinato has never won a tour-level match on a surface other than red clay; as it is, he entered this season with a career record of 423 and entered this tournament with a Grand Slam record of 0-4.
Then there’s this: The 25year-old from Sicily was suspended for 18 months and fined 40,000 euros (about $45,000) by his national federation in July 2016 for allegedly fixing a match by losing at a lower-tier Challenger event in Morocco a year earlier. Cecchinato appealed and, eventually, the Italian Olympic Committee announced that the sanctions were dropped.
On Friday, Cecchinato will face No. 7-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria, who made it to his third consecutive French Open semifinal by beating Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.
In the women’s quarterfinals, No. 10 Sloane Stephens beat No. 14 Daria Kasatkina of Russia, 6-3, 6-1, and No. 13 Madison Keys eliminated unseeded Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, 7-6 (5), 6-4. Stephens beat Keys in the U.S. Open final in September 2017, and the rematch Thursday will be the first all-American women’s semifinal at the French Open since Serena Williams defeated Jennifer Capriati in 2002.