"Novak Djokovic is going to be ready for Roland Garros" says Alex Corretja

Saturday, 23 April 2022 at 13:30

Updated at Friday, 08 November 2024 at 18:29

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byErik Virostko

Novak Djokovic hasn't had a typical 2022 season, but according to former ATP player Alex Corretja, he will be ready for the 2022 Roland Garros.

After Rafael Nadal's injury, Djokovic's chances of winning the 2022 French Open increased massively. However, the Serbian lost his first match at the 2022 Monte-Carlo Masters and got close to losing his opening match at the 2022 Serbia Open.

However, he managed to win it, and now he's on track to win the title in his hometown of Belgrade. Speaking to Eurosport about Djokovic's preparation and performances in the past few weeks, former world number 2 Alex Corretja said that Djokovic should be ready by the time players reach Paris.

"Novak, like everybody else, needs time. He needs to be patient because he hasn't played for such a long time. And even if he was not injured, he’s [got a] lack of rhythm, he needs to play matches, he needs to be in those sorts of moments when you are break point down and you know how to serve in that moment. These situations when you don't play, you miss these moments when you have everything automatic - all of a sudden you need to think again."

Lacking match practice isn't ideal for any player, and even though Djokovic showed in the past that he can overcome such challenge, it will be important for him this year to get play many matches as possible before hitting the ground in the French capital.

"So I think he will need matches, he will need to get through those kind of moments and rallies where he will feel like his heart is going out of his mouth [chest], but he will need to recover from that. You need to play rallies maybe of 30 to 40 shots and you need to recover from that."

"So I think he will need to play at least maybe 10 or 12 matches before Roland Garros to really be ready and feel like he's going to be one of the contenders. I'm sure that by the time Paris comes, Novak will be ready for that."

On top of that, many say that Djokovic is arguably the second-best clay-court player of all time, just behind Nadal, and that may help him make even faster progress.

"And clay - even he is an unbelievable player on it - is not his natural surface. His serve is not as big as on hard courts. So he's not counting on so many quick points with the serve. His forehand is good, but it's not as great as on hard courts where the ball can get through the court and his backhand is unbelievable because it's very flat and from side-to-side, but at the same time you need to be very precise to play well on clay."

"So [there are] a lot of adjustments he needs to find through the tournaments and it's important for him to play those matches to get the confidence back and especially the mindset to know 'OK, I am back on tour and I need to do this to become a champion again at Roland Garros'."