PARIS: No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia avoided an upset by outlasting 30th-seeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti for a 7-5, 6-7 (6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory yesterday in the third round of the French Open in Paris.
Even though 15 years separate the 37-year-old Djokovic from the 22-year-old Musetti, Djokovic managed to complete a stunning comeback in a match that lasted 4 hours, 29 minutes.
The match finished at 3:08 a.m. local time, topping the 1:25 a.m. finish that previously served as a tournament record.
With the victory, Djokovic is now tied with Roger Federer for the most Grand Slam wins at 369.
Djokovic had 44 winners against 42 unforced errors, also converting 62 of 90 first-serve points. Despite losing, Musetti converted 5 of 5 break points and finished with more winners (53) than Djokovic and fewer unforced errors (34).
But Musetti started to fall apart in the fourth set. He led 2-1 before watching Djokovic win five of the next six points, then found himself on the wrong end of a sweep in the fifth and final set.
Fourth-seeded German Alexander Zverev also advanced to the fourth round following a marathon match, as it took him 4 hours, 13 minutes to eliminate Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (10-3).
And Zverev needed to come back from a fifth-set deficit, down a double break in a match littered with break opportunities.
Griekspoor broke Zverev in the first game of the fifth set and did so again in the fifth game to take a 4-1 lead. But Zverev evened the set at 4-4, breaking his opponent in Griekspoor's next two service games. In the ensuing tiebreaker, Griekspoor failed to record a point on five of his six serves.
"Wow, incredible match. Incredible player. He is unbelievably dangerous," Zverev said of Griekspoor. "I always struggle against him. I don't like to play against him but all the credit to him, taking it all the way. ... The atmosphere today was unbelievable. I loved every second of it."
Also advancing yesterday was No. 5 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia and Australia's Alex de Minaur, the 11th seed. The two will meet each other in the fourth round.
Medvedev knocked out Czech Tomas Machac, 7-6 (4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4. As for de Minaur, he was a winner over Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
Saturday's play featured the continuation of three matches suspended Friday due to rain.
No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada took out No. 15 Ben Shelton of the United States, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1, to move on to a fourth-round match with Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the third seed.
In the other suspended matches, eighth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland topped Denis Shapovalov of Canada 6-3, 7-6 (0), 4-6, 6-1 to earn his 200th career tour-level victory, while No. 10 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria beat Belgian qualifier Zizou Bergs 6-3, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4.
Seventh-seeded Norwegian Casper Ruud, No. 12 seed Taylor Fritz of the U.S. and 13th-seeded Dane Holger Rune and Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo, the No. 23 seed, also won their matches yesterday (June 1).