French Open – Novak Djokovic battles Marton Vosovic in three sets, moves through in the third round

“It was a very intense match, especially in the first set,” Djokovic admitted in the first on-court interview. In the first round, he still had to put in a lot of effort to win it on a tie-break. “But I wasn’t surprised. Vusović is a very good player.”

And the Serb continued this to Eurosport: “He played well. I was ahead of the whole first set and should have finished it. But hats off to him, how he fought and what a high level he played.”

The match was marked by very strong winds in Paris these days. “The wind blew very hard on one side. So I had to think of a test match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in Spain when one side of the court was grass and the other sand. That’s how I felt today – like Bambi on Ice,” said the Serb in Eurosport’s virtual studio. On one side and on the other side there was so much sand that he felt like playing in the mud.”

“You have to adjust. It takes a while. It’s been quite stormy these days, but it usually calms down here when the sun goes down. That wasn’t the case today. That makes the timing difficult.”

Vujovic played well in the first set

At the start of the match, favorite Djokovic quickly set the pace and promptly took his opponent’s first serve to pull away 3-0.

But then Vujovic found the game better and got three balls to break the score 4: 2 to Djokovic. But the Serbian scored five goals in a row and held serve.

However, in the next Djokovic’s serve match, the Hungarian took balls eight and nine, and in the end Djokovic gave up serve with a double fault for the first time – 5: 4.

Vusovic then held serve and after 77 minutes entered a tie-break, ten minutes later Djokovic won 7-2 – but not without having to stretch out and fight hard.

In the second set, Djokovic immediately broke the Hungarian’s serve and repeated it again in the third game, so that the round was decided quickly. It took Djokovic 31 minutes to make it 6-0 with a forehand.

Djokovic again opened the third set with a break, but Vosovic immediately managed to restore the break and then make it 2-1.

Djokovic makes better use of his chances

Until then, the 31-year-old had kept up very well, making no more unnecessary mistakes than Djokovic and was mainly behind because he missed too many break opportunities. He had used only two out of eleven break balls up to that point, while the number three in the world had used five out of eight.

This was exactly what was decisive next: at 2: 2 30:30 in the third set, Fukovich missed completely, giving Djokovic another chance to break and the Serb immediately used it – the preliminary decision.

The Serb then served and got 5:2 with the next break ball to seal the match win.

But Fucsovics didn’t give up yet, fought back and managed a break, only to serve poorly afterwards and lose as a result: he didn’t serve his first serve three times in a row and so Djokovic got his first match point. The Hungarian managed to save it, but match point No. 2 finally settled thanks to an unforced forward foul.