By Chris Oddo | @Thefanchild | Friday 6 June 2025
Paris – An excellent champion met his match tonight in Paris. Was not necessarily Jannik sinfulNumber one in the world from Italy, who made it inside.
There was no one, in fact.
Only the smells of time blowing through this sport.
Did it also matter that Novak Djokovic Lost the semifinal of tonight against the high seed? Or does he no longer favorably match the growing elite of sport?
It depends on the perspective. Anyone who heard the crowd loud in support of the great champion 24 times can argue that Gjokovic’s simple presence in Paris made this Roland-Garros much better than it would have been different.
Whenever he plays Gjokovic destroys record books. Only on Wednesday he became the oldest half finalist in Paris since 1968.
With delays of nostalgia, we looked at his Grand Slam King Battle’s sinner on his 51 Grand Slam record on a perfect, fresh Parisian evening.
The biggest player ever lived? That we can even ask her to speak volumes.
And there he was, in the flesh. His way. His athlete incomprehensible. The sound of his strain as he tried to continue with a ruthless 23-year-old phenomenon.
Nole! Nole! Nole!
The faithful of Friday night came out full. They were well dressed, in business suits and high -style, fresh dresses to end their work week in Paris.
The open roof, the sun of the West that sheds its light and illuminates the east side of the chaterrier with a golden glow.
They came to see it in the faded light. They came to be desired, as they always have. But this time there was a tinge of something different shaking through the stands.
Evanescence.
Gjokovic won the match point in the second match of the second group, a rally with more curves and curves than the Seine’s left bank, followed by the rooting razing of the ancient stages.
“Just a great sense of gratitude for the kind of support I received tonight,” Gjokovic would later say. “It was extraordinary. I don’t think I’ve ever received this much support in this stadium in my career in big matches against the best players in the world. So very honored to experience it.”
Never forget that Djokovic lost the next two points in that game. 15,000 who came to Clay Mecca on Friday were there for a look at the past; A chance to reconnect Wiith that ineffective Djokovic goodness.
It was there! That glory of the mind everywhere-in-one with which he can play when he forces you to feel the effort and energy he is putting in it.
The sinner said well after his victory. “Amazing is amazing to see him still playing this kind of level he produces, and the physical form at which he is,” he told reporters.
At 2-1 in the second set, this writer wondered how delightful it would be if we stopped time there, like those in the movies. Gjokovic, the separate middle step. His legs bending, his back was perfectly arched, the brandy rocket in front of him, perpendicular to the red clay.
Can we live only at that moment for a while? Enough with the ages that already end.
And at that frozen moment, can we believe that Gjokovic could win this match and defeat Alcaraz in the finals and steal with his 25th? Can we hope, no matter how wrong the hope is, that he still has it in him?
He almost did tonight. But it is almost a few kilometers a lot of a miracle.
In reality, time does not stop. This is not a movie, though they are probably coming. Time marches, and so does Jannik Sinner, who treated everything that Novak threw on Friday and turned it with interest.
Gjokovic was so changed in this match, and the crowd arranged the big champion with their best Friday theater theater. There were calls. A Mexican wave. Gasps and groans as he traded blows to the Italian points, earned and destroyed in the third.
Gjokovic was good-good-hearted. Even he-gund-twy-like-next-good, but the Italian was better: here-comes-like-a-bull-three. The sinner was safe, electric, composed, creative – indestructible – and he ended the holiday in three hours and 17 minutes glorious.
The best 38-year-old Djokovic had to offer was treated and rudely spit as a Central Court blow.
Ah, but never disturb the sinner. Never forget which player continues to play Alcaraz in Sunday’s final to go to Roland-Garros. We have tomorrow for this, and another decade to introduce new tennis faces, at least.
Friday evening in Paris was about Gjokovic’s experience. Raise a glass in two decades of unbreakable perfection. The end is near, but not yet here; Everything that happens for the rest of Gjokovic’s career, if it’s something like tonight, will be something to remember.
Enjoy it while you can.
“I really don’t know what tomorrow brings in a way to this point in my career,” Gjokovic admitted, before saying he had left for Wimbledon. “I will continue to continue.”
Music in our ears.
