Novak Djokovic still has the upper hand heading into the French Open despite his recent blips on the Tour, according to Denmark’s Holger Rune.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion has endured a mixed clay court swing where he has won five out of eight matches played so far. In both Monte Carlo and at the Srpska Open in Bosnia Djokovic failed to win back-to-back matches. In recent weeks he has been hindered by a right elbow problem which forced him to pull out of the Madrid Masters.
However, Djokovic regained some momentum at the Italian Open where he scored wins over Grigor Dimitrov and Cameron Norrie en route to the quarter-finals. However, his run was ended by Rune who went on to reach the final of the tournament.
It remains to be seen how Djokovic will bounce back at the French Open which is taking place for the first time since 2004 without Rafael Nadal who pulled out of the tournament due to injury. He has won Roland Garros twice before in 2016 and 2021, as well as reaching the semi-final stage on five other occasions. Given his tournament history, Rune believes Djokovic remains the firm favourite heading into Paris.
“I still think Novak is the main favourite for the event. He’s the one with the most slams of who’s playing and the most experience,” he told reporters in Rome on Sunday.
“Then we have Alcaraz. We have Medvedev. We have a lot of guys. I think if I have to pick one favourite, I’ll probably pick Novak. But again, it’s more open because we don’t have Rafa this year.”
20-year-old Rune aims to be among those challenging Djokovic for the title after reaching the final of two Masters 1000 events on the clay in as many months. He also won the BMW Open in Germany last month.
“Paris is the main goal of the clay season. I think I had the matches that I needed to be as well-prepared as possible. Now it is the last small things I want to do better the next time I stay in these big matches,” he commented.
Rune reached the quarter-finals of the French Open last year on his debut before losing to Casper Ruud. He is the first Danish man to have reached the last eight of a major tournament in the Open Era.
This year’s French Open draw will take place on Thursday followed by the first round of matches getting underway on Sunday.
