An injured Novak Djokovic sealed a 15th consecutive French Open quarter-final with a thrilling comeback victory over Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo in the fourth round, while Daniil Medvedev became the highest seed to crash out at Roland Garros so far.
A limping Djokovic looked to be heading for a shock defeat when 2-1 down in sets and 4-2 behind in the fourth set, but battled back from the brink to delight the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd by winning 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 after four hours and 39 minutes.
“I was maybe three or four points away from losing this match,” the reigning champion said. “I’m not sure how I won this match.”
Djokovic narrowly avoided his earliest exit from the tournament since 2009, teeing up a rematch of last year’s final against Casper Ruud, who beat Taylor Fritz in four sets.
However, he said he was not yet 100 per cent sure he would be fit enough to play on Wednesday.
“I don’t know what will happen tomorrow or after tomorrow if I’ll be able to step out on the court and play. I hope so. Let’s see what happens,” he said, before blaming the right knee injury he sustained on unusually slippery courts.
“Could this injury have been prevented? Possibly,” added Djokovic, who said he asked for the court to be swept more frequently.
Djokovic had reached the last 16 by defeating Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in another bruising five-set encounter which concluded at 3.07am on Sunday.
Fifth seed Medvedev suffered a four-set loss to Australia’s Alex de Minaur, starting strongly before slipping to a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 defeat.
De Minaur will face Alexander Zverev in his second slam quarter-final and first since the 2020 US Open.
Medvedev’s best performance in the French Open remains a quarter-final run in 2021, while he has also lost in the first round in five of his eight appearances.
De Minaur had never got past the second round at the tournament before this year, winning just three of 10 matches.
Zverev won his second successive five-setter, coming from behind to beat Holger Rune 4-6, 6-1, 5-7, 7-6, 6-2 in a night-session match which again finished in the early hours of the morning.