Novak Djokovic likes to leave it all on the court and he did that also in his first-round match at the 2023 Roland Garros.
The Serb took on Aleksandar Kovacevic from the United States but with Serbian roots. Although the first two sets were dominant by Djokovic, he had to fight to finish the match in three sets, ultimately doing that and winning 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(1) in two hours and 29 minutes.
But already during his first-round match, the 22-time Grand Slam champion was showered by a few boos from the French crowd. In the third set, Djokovic got broken in the sixth game as his opponent levelled the score of the third set.
But he got a chance to break again immediately, and it was in the next game when he had a break point at 40-30. After a few well-placed shots, Djokovic dominated the rally and broke his opponent's serve once again, celebrating the point and the break.
The Serb also pointed to his ear when celebrating, but the Parisian crowd probably didn't like that. It's not clear whether it was because of Djokovic's celebration despite playing the world no. 114 and winning or something else.
Regardless, celebrating points like that against an opponent ranked so much below the 22-time major winner only shows his passion for the sport and how much respect he gives to every opponent that he battles on the ATP Tour.
After the match, aside from writing an interesting message on camera, Djokovic also talked about his first-round opponent and it was obvious that he was impressed by the way Kovacevic played, especially in the third set.
"He played really well, and he was handling himself very good there mentally, hanging in there. I served for the match, he broke me. I mean, credit to him for fighting spirit. You know, of course I want to dominate whoever I play against regardless of the circumstances and who is across the net, but, you know, sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't."
"I think I played really well and held things under control for two-and-a-half sets and then lost my serve and things got a little bit on a wrong side for me. But, you know, I managed to hold my nerves and played pretty much a perfect tiebreak."
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