Djokovic survives Perricard, sets record 82nd Grand Slam appearance
The Belgrader won his Roland Garros first-round match against Frenchman Mpetshi Perricard 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4; Valentin Royer awaits in the second round.
With the ball in his hand before the ninth game of the fifth set, Djokovic looked up at the players’ box. The coaching team, the lawyers, his mother Dijana, his son Stefan who had flown in from Monte Carlo especially for this match, none of them was seated. It was 21:47 Paris time, Court Philippe-Chatrier was under the lights, and the Belgrader had in front of him the first serve to take him into the second round of Roland Garros.
The serve was flying, but not the way we remember from 2023 or 2024. Djokovic beat Mpetshi Perricard, the 21-year-old Frenchman who stands at 203 centimetres, in four sets, 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4, in his 22nd consecutive Paris appearance. The match lasted three hours and 18 minutes, according to the tournament’s official site.
Why was the first set like that?
Perricard has already established himself in 2026 as the player with the second-strongest serve on tour, with an average of 218 kilometres per hour. In the first set, the Belgrader had no answer: he landed 38 per cent of his first serves and lost the set 5-7 after three technical errors on his own serve in the 12th game. In the break after the first set, coach Andy Murray, in the umpire’s box, was exchanging a sketch with Goran Ivanisevic, who was in the Marseille box as a guest of French television.
The second set started with a Djokovic break in the fifth game, but Perricard hit back immediately. The difference came in the 12th game, when the Frenchman at 5-6 produced two double faults and handed over the game that meant the set. The third set was a procession, 6-1 to Djokovic in 28 minutes, which is practically unheard of against a top-30 player at a tournament of this category. The fourth was a fight, but Djokovic in the closing stretch found the cross-court backhand he has been living on for twenty years.
After the match, Djokovic told the ATP Tour that this was “exactly what the doctor ordered”, a reference to several months without big wins. Coach Murray added in the press zone that “the second set was the turning point, the first was a player’s error on serve”. A piece of trivia: Djokovic celebrated his 39th birthday two days before the match.
What next on the road to the quarter-finals?
In the second round the Belgrader plays Valentin Royer, the 22-year-old Frenchman, who passed Australian Alex de Minaur in the first round in three sets. The match-up has not been played before, which at a tournament of this format means Djokovic will see Royer live for the first time in the first round of a major. The match time will be confirmed by Sunday May 25 evening at the latest, according to the tournament’s statement.
With Carlos Alcaraz out of the tournament with tendinitis in his wrist, as reported by the ATP Tour, the ladder of favourites narrows to three: Jannik Sinner with 29 consecutive wins, Alexander Zverev after the Marrakech final, and Djokovic himself. Statistically, with today’s win the Belgrader reached his 82nd Grand Slam appearance, going one match clear of the joint record with Roger Federer and Feliciano Lopez.
The next match is the second round. After that, if he passes Royer, the most likely third-round opponent is Cameron Norrie. Djokovic has not played Norrie since the Indian Wells final in 2023.
On the personal side, the scene from the first set against Perricard suggests Djokovic is no longer the absolute master of first sets he was between 2018 and 2023. His serve drops to 38 per cent in tough moments, which for someone who as recently as 2024 averaged 65 per cent first serve at Grand Slams is a marker of physical strain. The unforgiving physiotherapist Vlatko Vucetic, who joined Djokovic in March, has work nobody has been able to do in his place. The question for the second week is whether he will be fresh enough for two five-set matches in four days, which is almost certain if he reaches the quarter-finals. On the other hand, hardcourt-leaning players like Royer can rattle Djokovic in the first set, but over five sets without deep stamina back-up they usually fall away. That is our biggest opening.
The second round is scheduled for Wednesday May 27.
