'Novak Is Human': Djokovic Chasing 23rd Grand Slam Helps Ruud Says Zverev

| by Zlatko Vodenicharov

Alexander Zverev believes that Novak Djokovic being on the brink of winning 23 could help Casper Ruud in the Roland Garros.

Sunday, June 11th 2023 will see Novak Djokovic battle Casper Ruud in the Roland Garros final. Djokovic booked his spot in the final by beating a cramping Alcaraz in four sets while Ruud thoroughly outplayed Zverev in three simple sets.

The final is an interesting one for many reasons. Casper Ruud is playing his 3rd grand slam final, second at Roland Garros hoping to finally win his first. He's now been in finals, it's nothing new for him so his chances should be better than in previous times.

It's a similar thing for Djokovic as he's been in plenty before and he's been favoured like this plenty of times before as well. For the most part, Djokovic handles it well but there is one thing that could benefit Ruud a little bit according to Zverev and that's the humanity of Djokovic. As spectacular as Djokovic is, he's still only human.

Novak is one of the best players in the world, that's for sure, but when you're on the brink of history I think that adds a little bit of pressure. You remember the US Open final he had with Medvedev after beating me in the semis still. The pressure, you know, we are all human. Novak is human. We all feel it.


There have been instances in the past when that mattered. Zverev benefitted from something like that at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago when Djokovic collapsed suddenly after beating the German handily. The pressure of possibly finally winning gold for Serbian took its toll. Later that year it happened again at the US Open.

With a chance to finally get the calendar slam done, to solidify his status as the greatest of all time, Djokovic crumbled against an unbothered Medvedev who won a lot easier than many thought he would. Those instances certainly taught Djokovic a lesson. Let's see if he can apply what it taught him on Sunday.

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