As yet another unforced error from Novak Djokovic sent him down a break in the fourth set of his tense, gripping tussle with Francisco Cerúndolo, the world No 1 reckoned with the very real prospect of his earliest defeat at Roland Garros in 15 years. He was limping, wincing, and struggling to find his range as his Argentinian opponent seemed to laser forehand winners at will.
But nobody knows how to plot their way back from a desperate deficit like Djokovic. Despite trailing by two sets to one for a second match in a row and ingesting a cocktail of painkillers for a sore knee, he found a way through, defeating Cerúndolo 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 after 4hr 39min to return to the quarter-finals of the French Open.
