Novak Djokovic and Lorenzo Musetti played in a historic match at 2024 Garros, which set the record for the latest finish in the tournament.
Whenever Djokovic and Musetti see eye-to-eye on the court, the stakes are always high. They had played each other three times before on clay, and none would dare to leave their seat until the final point was played.
Djokovic defeated the Italian in their first meeting at the clay-court Grand Slam in 2021, recovering from two sets down to win via retirement in the fifth set. Musetti got this revenge two years later, fighting back from a set down to beat the Serbian in last year's Monte-Carlo Masters.
But Djokovic turned the tables again, beating the 22-year-old in this year's Monte-Carlo Masters and now at Roland Garros. When the order of play was released for Saturday was released, the pair were expected to headline the night session on Court Philippe-Chatrier at around 8 pm.
Because of inclement weather that stalled some matches on the outdoor courts, the schedule was once again heavily impacted. Grigor Dimitrov's match against Zizou Bergs was to be completed on the main court after Alexander Zverev's match with Tallon Griekspoor.
But tournament organizers certainly did not expect the fourth seed to be dragged into a five-set dogfight by the Dutchman, who led with a double break in the fifth but lost in a 10-point tie-break.
Thereafter, Dimitrov needed four sets to see off Bergs, delaying Djokovic and Musetti's match by at least another couple of hours. The World No. 1 would arrive on the court just before 11 p.m.
Djokovic and Musetti played the second-longest match of this year's tournament, lasting four hours and 29 minutes. The match, which began on Saturday night, finished in the early hours of Sunday morning at 3:08 a.m., with the top seed surviving in a five-set marathon.
It set the record for the latest finish to a match at Roland Garros, shattering the previous record held by Rafael Nadal and Jannik Sinner, who battled at the 2020 edition and finished at 1:25 a.m.
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