Novak Djokovic survives scare to advance at French Open

Paris: Two-time champion Novak Djokovic huffed and puffed but forced his way into the fourth round of the French Open following a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over Spanish 29th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Friday.

Djokovic, who is aiming to leapfrog injured champion Rafael Nadal and win a 23rd Grand Slam title, came into the match at Court Philippe Chatrier having lost to Davidovich Fokina the last time they met in Monte Carlo.

The 36-year-old Serbian was given an early reminder of his struggles in that 2022 match by the man-bun sporting Davidovich Fokina, who had the world No. 3 tied up in knots with some heavy hitting and breathtaking drop shots.

Djokovic creaked on serve but hit back when it mattered to level at 3-3 and edged the 83-minute first set with a blistering crosscourt winner that drew huge roars.

A charged-up Djokovic responded to an early break with two of his own but dropped serve again in the wildly swinging second set, before shrugging off three double faults at 5-5 and a time violation to double his advantage in another tiebreak.

He called the trainer onto the court for an apparent left leg issue, sparking fears of the injury that accompanied his run to the Australian Open title in January had returned, but pulled away in the third set and crossed the finish line in style.

Meanwhile, Jessica Pegula quickly gathered her belongings and marched out of Court Philippe

Chatrier after a 6-1, 6-3 loss to Elise

Mertens in the third round Friday at the French Open, a far earlier exit than the No. 3-seeded American has been used to at Grand Slam tournaments lately.

Pegula was a quarterfinalist at four of the five most recent majors, including a year ago at Roland Garros.

She’s never gone further than that stage at a Slam and never really got into this match against the 28th-seeded Mertens on a day with a breeze at about 10 mph (15 kph) and a chill in the low 60s Fahrenheit (low teens Celsius).

“I feel like I was still playing good points. Elise was just being really tough, not making a lot of errors and making me play every single ball.

And with the windy conditions, I felt like it definitely played into her game,” said Pegula, whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.

“She returned well and I thought that she used the wind on both sides to her advantage,” Pegula said. “She was playing aggressive on the side with the wind and then, against the wind, I think she was playing some really good defense.”

Mertens is a 27-year-old Belgian who was a semifinalist at the 2018 Australian Open and twice has reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals.

But she still has not made it beyond the fourth round on the red clay in Paris. She will attempt to do that when she plays Sunday against 2021 French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who beat No. 24 Anastasia Potapova 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.

With Pegula joining No. 5 Caroline Garcia, No. 8 Maria Sakkari and No. 10 Petra Kvitova on the sideline, four of the top 10 women’s seeds already are gone.

That’s part of a pattern this year at Roland Garros: Only 12 seeds made it through two rounds, the fewest in Paris

since the field expanded to 32 seeds in 2002. With the losses by Pegula and Potapova, only 10 remain.

Another woman from the United States joined Pegula on the way out early Friday.