There are many reasons why Novak Djokovic was able to win the 2023 Roland Garros, and tie-breaks were one of them.
When neither of the players managed to build an advantage of one break in the first twelve games of the set, it has to be decided in a tie-break, format which gives both players equal chance to win, played to 7.
Well, equal chance unless you're Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer, two of the most successful players in this stat on the ATP Tour. In their careers, both won over 65% of tie-breaks that they played, and it was during the Roland Garros when the Serb surpassed the Swiss Maestro's record.
And it's not surprising that the newly crowned 23-time Grand Slam champion broke this record at the 2023 Roland Garros. While his career percentage in tie-breaks sits at around 65%, this year in Paris, he was 100%.
But Djokovic wasn't 100% just in tie-breaks won, he was 100% in every aspect of his game in the tie-break. A total of 55 points were played during six tie-breaks that the 36-year-old played on the Parisian clay, and he won incredible 42 of those.
Djokovic won the third-set tie-break against Aleksandar Kovacevic in the first round, first-set tie-break against Marton Fucsovics in the second round, two tie-breaks in a challenging match against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the third round, a second-set tie-break against Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals, and a first-set tie-break against Casper Ruud in the final.
While every single one of these tie-breaks were very important, some were even more than other. Most probably, Djokovic would have cruised through the first two rounds even if he lost one of the tie-breaks, but the importance of his mastery came in the latter rounds.
Winning two tie-breaks against Davidovich Fokina was important because the first two sets were played for nearly three hours and if the Spaniard won one of those, fans on Court Philippe-Chatrier would witness a real marathon.
The same importance can be given to a second-set tie-break against Khachanov. If Djokovic would have lost that one, he would have been already two sets down to the Russian, but he avoided that by playing a perfect tie-break in which he didn't lose a single point.
And the importance of the first-set tie-break in the final doesn't even need to be mentioned. Overall, Djokovic hit 17 winners in the tie-breaks that he played at the 2023 Roland Garros, and he made zero, yes 0, unforced errors.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion was basically superior when it came to a tie-break in Paris, and that was one of the key reasons that led him to the triumph. It's probable that he would have won majority of the matches also if he wouldn't be this perfect, but then a question of his overall fitness, and an injury that was in play, comes into place.
Would Djokovic be able to play with Davidovich Fokina for five hours and then still handle the rest of his difficult matches? Would he be able to come back from a two-set deficit against Khachanov? We'll probably never know, but that's because the Serb was perfect and that's why he won the tournament and rewrote history once more.
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