Novak Djokovic is two victories away from winning an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, and is happy about a scheduling decision that gave him some momentum.
A few weeks before the 2025 French Open began, expectations for Djokovic were much lower than usual after he failed to win a match at the 2025 Monte-Carlo Masters and the 2025 Madrid Open.
Those poor results led to his split with coach and former on-court rival, Andy Murray. Bad performances and instability in his coaching setup made a deep run at Roland Garros seem even more improbable.
Rather than just train before the season’s Second Grand Slam, Djokovic accepted a Wild card into the 2025 Geneva Open. He also competed at the tournament last year, losing in the semi-final to Tomas Machac.
Djokovic went two steps further at this year’s iteration of the Swiss tournament. The Serbian claimed an incredible 100th title by defeating Hubert Hurkacz in a thrilling final that kept the fans watching on the edge of their seats.
That momentum was carried into Roland Garros. Djokovic did not drop a set in his opening four matches before recovering from losing the first set to defeat Alexander Zverev on Wednesday during the night session.
Djokovic mentioned his decision to play in Geneva during the post-match press conference after beating Zverev. Although the 38-year-old is confident he would have played well at Roland Garros anyway, he said going to Geneva was the correct decision.
“It definitely helped my confidence level and my game (…) I still believe that my game would still be good even if I didn’t play Geneva and I came directly here because, as I said, I thrive on Grand Slams and manage to play the best tennis always. But nevertheless, it was good decision to go there.”
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