The No. 1 men’s tennis player in the world is in a 2-1 hole in his French Open quarterfinal matchup against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Novak Djokovic got off to an extremely impressive start, crushing Tsonga 6-1 in the opening set of the match, but Tsonga has willed his way back into the match with a partisan crowd behind him. After three sets, Tsonga leads Djokovic 1-6, 7-5, 7-5.
Novak Djokovic Down 2-1 After Hot Start In French Open Quarterfinal
In the first set, Tsonga made a number of unforced errors and looked frustrated by Djokovic’s defense as the Serbian coasted to a first set win. Tsonga made 12 unforced errors in the first seven games of the match, compared to a total of 24 over the following 24 games. Tsonga started to play much better in the second set and played his best tennis in the third, capitalizing on a mediocre serve by Djokovic throughout the set. Djokovic won 86 percent of his first serve points in the first set, compared to 69 percent in the third.
Djokovic broke Tsonga in his second service game in the third set, but Tsonga impressively rallied back to break Djokovic at love in the next game to get the set back on serve. Tsonga held his last service game of the match after three deuces to go ahead 6-5 in the set, then broke Djokovic in the 12th game of the set to win the third set 7-5 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
You can see a full French Open scoreboard at SI.com.
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