Novak Djokovic suffered a shock defeat in Rome and has struggled on clay (Picture: TennisTV)
Novak Djokovic has warned his French Open rivals that he is confident he can win Roland-Garros this year, with the tournament just 11 days away.
Djokovic already lifted the first Grand Slam trophy of 2023 at the Australian Open and victory in Paris would see him surpass Rafael Nadal for the most major men’s singles titles in history, with both men having won 22 thus far.
The 35-year-old Serbian has not been in the best of form, though, especially on clay this year, and crashed out of the Italian Open to Holger Rune on Wednesday.
That quarter-final loss followed early exits at the Srpska Open and Monte-Carlo Masters to Lorenzo Musetti and Dusan Lajovic respectively.
But Djokovic is confident he can win the French Open for the third time in his illustrious career as the tournament gets started on May 28 – despite the men’s singles looking set to be wide open.
Nadal, dubbed the ‘King of Clay’, has famously dominated at Roland-Garros but he has been ruled out with injury.
Some have tipped 20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz – who will take the world No.1 ranking from Djokovic after Rome – to win the second major title of his career.
But his shock Italian Open exit to a qualifier has shown how open the Grand Slam will be and plenty of other tennis stars will fancy their chances – Rune, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Jannik Sinner and Casper Ruud to name just a few.
Djokovic, though, when asked if he was confident he can win the French Open in 2023, replied: ‘Yes.’
He added: ‘I know I can always play better. Definitely am looking forward to working on various aspects of my game, of my body, hopefully getting myself in 100% shape. That’s the goal.
‘I always like my chances in Grand Slams against anybody on any surface, best-of-five. Let’s see how it goes.’
Quizzed about the new generation of young stars, Djokovic said: ‘Alcaraz is No 1 in the world from Monday. Obviously he’s playing amazing tennis. I think it’s also good for our sport that we have new faces, new guys coming up. It’s normal.
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‘We’ve been saying this for years, that we can expect it to come, that moment to come when you have kind of shift of generations.
‘I’m personally still trying to hang in there with all of them. I’m happy with – of course, very happy with – my career so far.
‘I still have the hunger to keep going. Let’s see how far I’m going to play.’
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