Defending champions Novak Djokovic had withdrawn from the 2024 French Open earlier this week, ahead of his quarterfinal match against Casper Ruud owing to a knee injury. He later underwent a surgery in Paris before heading home. Despite being left unfortunate in his opportunity to add another Slam to his record career tally, Djokovic couldn’t miss the riveting final at the Roland Garros on Sunday between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev.
Both Alcaraz and Zverev reached their maiden Roland Garros final on Friday, however, both do have the experience of playing in big matches. The Spaniard is 2-0 in major finals, having won his maiden title against Ruud in the 2022 US Open before beating Djokovic in the Wimbledon final last year. Besides, he also has a 5-1 record in Masters 1000 finals. Zverev, on the other hand, is an Olympic gold medalist and 2-0 in title matches at the ATP Tour Finals and 6-5 at the Masters 1000 level, which includes his win in Rome last month.
On Sunday, as the two were battling it out on Court Phillipe Chatrier in Paris, Djokovic shared an Instagram post which showed that he was engrossed into the men’s singles final. The caption read: “Enjoying this match with some great company.”
Alcaraz comfortably won the opening set in 46 minutes, breaking Zverev thrice, while being broken once, before the German returned the favour in the second set to script a 6-3 win and level the contest. The fourth seed then grabbed the momentum quickly in the third set to win five games in a row en route to winning it 7-5 against Alcaraz, which left him a set away from his maiden Grand Slam title.
Overall, Zverev leads 5-4 in head-to-head rivalry against the youngster, which includes recent wins last season in Turin and this year at the Australian Open. However, Alcaraz won two of their three clay meetings, winning twice in Madrid but losing in the 2022 Roland Garros quarter-finals.
