Paris: Novak Djokovic has become the oldest Roland-Garros mens champion, at the age of 36, and is the first man in history to win his 23rd Grand Slam tournament.
Competing in his 34th career major final, Djokovic defeated the fourth-seeded Casper Ruud 7-6(1), 6-3, 7-5 to add a third French Open Mens Singles win to his illustrious sporting career.
In the presence of celebrities including Tom Brady, Kylian Mbappe, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Hugh Grant and Olivier Giroud, record-breaker Djokovic picked up a fifth win over Ruud in as many meetings and ensured his return to the top of the world rankings.
A legendary moment ?#RolandGarros @DjokerNole pic.twitter.com/IdT4LWqqjO
Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 11, 2023
Ruud held at love to start the match while Djokovics opening service game lasted over 10 minutes and saw the Norwegian break serve on this third opportunity en route to a 3-0 lead.
Djokovic struck back in game seven, breaking Ruud on a netted overhead from the No.4 seed (Djokovic had missed two of his own earlier in the match) to narrow his deficit to 3-4.
The Serb had to save a break point in the following game before holding to level the contest at 4-4.
Ruud stopped the bleeding after losing three games in a row, saving a break point before inching ahead 5-4.
After 73 minutes of play, the opening set fittingly went to a tiebreak, which Djokovic immediately started with a minibreak, thanks to a killer forehand winner on the run.
He conceded just one point in the breaker to take a one-set lead in one hour and 21 minutes.
Djokovic started the second set with a break and was soon up 3-0. That was all he needed to comfortably secure a two-set advantage on the two-hour 13-minute mark.
Ruud and Djokovic were neck-and-neck in the third, but a crucial break in the 11th game gave the Serb the advantage he needed and he never looked back, cementing his name further in the history books.
(With UNI inputs)
