Novak Djokovic’s quest to win all four major tournaments in a year will have to wait until 2025. The French Open announced on Tuesday that the defending champion has withdrawn from the clay-court Grand Slam with a right knee injury.
No further details about the knee injury have been released. It’s not known when it happened, but he struggled with it during Monday’s epic five-set battle against Francisco Cerundolo. The match lasted 4 hours and 39 minutes and Djokovic required on-court treatment at least once.
Djokovic was scheduled to face No. 7 Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Ruud is awarded a walkover (although not a win) and automatically advances to the semi-finals, where he will face Alexander Zverev or Alex de Minaur, who will play on Wednesday.
By withdrawing from Roland Garros, Djokovic will lose the number 1 position in the ATP rankings. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner, who just beat Grigor Dimitrov to advance to the semi-finals, should be the next No. 1 no matter how he finishes at the French Open.
Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff ready for 2023 finals rematch
Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff continue to find each other at the French Open. A year after competing in the final at Roland Garros, Swiatek, the world number 1, and Gauff, the world number 3, will face each other in the semi-finals on Thursday.
Swiatek, a virtuoso on the clay court, is on a different heater at Roland Garros. She has been a wrecking ball so far, destroying all but one of her opponents in straight sets. (That was Naomi Osaka, who forced a third set against Swiatek in the second round before dropping out.) She downplayed Anastasia Potapova in the fourth round, winning 6-0, 6-0, and then won a third straight with 6-0. Tuesday against Marketa Vondrousova. It took more than 35 minutes for Vondrousova to win her first match against Swiatek, and she could only win one more before Iga completely overwhelmed her.
That will be a lot for Gauff, but she knows what to expect against Swiatek. Her match against Iga in the 2023 final was Gauff’s first ever Grand Slam final, and a year later she has only matured and is ready to try again. Gauff had a little more trouble on Tuesday against Ons Jabeur in her quarter-final. She failed to find the right shots against the world number 1 in the first set, but she eventually won 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Alcaraz beat Tsitsipas in straight sets and will face Sinner in the semi-finals
In a top-10 quarterfinal, No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz defeated No. 9 Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4. The win sets up a top-three semi-final with Alcaraz taking on second-place Sinner.
Alcaraz reaches the semi-finals for the second time in his career. Djokovic defeated then top-ranked Alcaraz in four sets in the 2023 semi-final on his way to winning his third French Open title. Alcaraz, a two-time major champion (US Open 2022, Wimbledon 2023), will try to advance to the final of the French Open for the first time.
Sinner is also trying to advance to his first French Open final. He earned his first career Grand Slam victory with a comeback victory over Daniil Medvedev at the Australian Open in January.
