Djokovic Questions Roland Garros Scheduling After Missing Champions League Final
NewsSunday, 01 June 2025 at 11:07
Novak Djokovic expressed his desire to watch the Champions League final on Saturday evening, but instead, he was scheduled to play a match at Roland Garros.
Djokovic is one of the most influential tennis players in the world. As such, he attracts the most fans, and the scheduling of his matches is always done in a way to maximize the revenue generated by the tournament.
Like all of his colleagues, the 38-year-old Serbian also sometimes has requests when it comes to scheduling his matches, and he had one of those after winning his second-round match at this year's Roland Garros on Thursday.
Djokovic knew that his next match would be played on Saturday, the day of the Champions League final. As a big football fan, the 24-time Grand Slam champion didn't want to miss the match, but despite expressing his desire to watch it, he was scheduled for the night session match at the Court Philippe Chatrier.
However, the Roland Garros organizers didn't listen to the three-time French Open champion's wish, scheduling his third-round match against Filip Misolic as a night match, which meant neither of these players was able to watch it.
With the Roland Garros venue and Parc Des Princes (the stadium of the Paris Saint-Germain) being separated only by a five-minute walk, all the fans were able to hear whenever the French club scored, as thousands of fans watched the match at the stadium, even though it was played at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.
Speaking after his win, Djokovic questioned the scheduling, saying he was well aware of the fans celebrating each goal that PSG scored.
"I don’t know if it was good for me to get this scheduled slot, because it was interesting. The crowd was really following the game, and I could hear when they scored, and it was way too many times that they were celebrating. I was like, 'Wow, I mean, there’s a lot of goals from Paris, I mean, what’s going on?' So now I heard it’s 5-0, so it’s quite a result, to be honest."
Djokovic admitted that if he hadn't been scheduled to play his match, he would have watched football, and it was clear that he was a bit disappointed to have missed the match.
"But yeah, I mean, night sessions are always different, you know, they’re always louder, the people are always more excited. Everything is very loud and different from the day session."
"I knew that I’m going to have to be scheduled once to play at night, and it’s okay. It’s fine, you know, I mean, I would be watching football for sure. Right now, we are in Paris. They won it for the first time, so I don’t know how we’re gonna all go back to our hotels."
"It’s going to be quite a journey, quite an adventure, but I think we are in for a long celebration and probably not much sleep tonight. So it’s a fun night to be in Paris, I guess."
Despite maybe not being happy about the scheduling, Djokovic has plenty of reasons to be happy about his tennis in Paris so far. He has yet to lose a set, which is why he said that he was pleased with his performances so far.
"On my side, I think there’s always something to improve, something to get better at, but overall, I have to be pleased with the level of tennis so far."
Up next, the Serbian legend will take on Cameron Norrie, whom he bested only a week ago when the two met in the semi-finals of the Geneva Open, where Djokovic won his 100th career title.
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