Djokovic sets record with 23rd Grand Slam title

PARIS — Novak Djokovic made it clear for years that this was his goal. What drove him. What inspired him. The biggest titles from his sport’s biggest stages were Djokovic’s main aim, and now he finally stands alone — ahead of Rafael Nadal, ahead of Roger Federer, ahead of every man who ever has swung a racket.

If Djokovic could wait this long to hold this record, he certainly could wait for the half-hour or so it took to straighten out his strokes in the French Open final. And so, after a bit of a shaky start in thick, humid air and under foreboding charcoal clouds Sunday, he imposed himself. His opponent at Court Philippe Chatrier, Casper Ruud, never really stood a serious chance after that.

Djokovic earned his record 23rd Grand Slam men’s singles championship, breaking a tie with Nadal and moving three in front of the retired Federer, with a 7-6 (1), 6-3, 7-5 victory over Ruud that really was not in doubt for most of its 3 hours, 13 minutes.

Nadal congratulated Djokovic on Twitter, tweeting that it was an “amazing achievement.”

Djokovic, 36, from Serbia, puts this one alongside the French Open titles he earned in 2016 and 2021, making him the only man with at least three from each major event. He has won 10 trophies at the Australian Open, seven at Wimbledon and three at the US Open.

“I knew that going into the tournament, going into the match, especially, today, that there is history on the line, but I try to focus my attention and my thoughts into preparing for this match in the best way possible to win, like any other match,” Djokovic said, wearing a red jacket with “23” stitched on the chest. “Of course, I would lie if I say that I didn’t think about the finish line that is right there and that one more match is needed to win a trophy — a historic one.”

Also worth noting: Djokovic is again halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam — winning all four majors in one season — something no man has achieved since Rod Laver in 1969. Djokovic came close to pulling off that feat in 2021, when he won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon and made it all the way to the title match at the US Open before losing to Daniil Medvedev.

Djokovic will resume that pursuit at Wimbledon, which begins on the grass of the All England Club on July 3.

“He has this software in his head that he can switch [on] when a Grand Slam comes,” said his coach, Goran Ivanisevic. “The day we arrived here, he was better, he was more motivated, he was more hungry. Every day, he played better and better.”

He has now held the trophy at 11 of the past 20 Slams, a remarkable run made even more so when considering that he did not participate in two majors during that span because he did not get vaccinated against COVID-19. Djokovic was deported from Australia in January 2022 before the Australian Open, and he was not allowed to fly to the United States ahead of last year’s US Open under a rule that has since been lifted.

Getting to 23 not only sets the mark for men, but it also lets Djokovic equal Serena Williams, who wrapped up her career last year, for the most by anyone in the Open era, which began in 1968. Margaret Court won some of her record 24 Slam trophies in the amateur era.

At 20 days past his 36th birthday, Djokovic is the oldest singles champion at Roland Garros, considered the most grueling of the majors because of the lengthy, grinding points required by the red clay, which is slower than the grass or hard courts underfoot elsewhere.

Nadal’s 22nd major arrived in Paris two days after he turned 36. He has been sidelined since January by a hip injury and had arthroscopic surgery on June 2.

Djokovic’s triumph Sunday also means he will return to No. 1 in the ATP rankings Monday, replacing Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. Djokovic already has spent more weeks at the top spot than any player — man or woman — since the inception of computerized tennis rankings a half-century ago.

It was Djokovic who eliminated Alcaraz in the semifinals Thursday, wearing him down over two thrilling sets until the 20-year-old’s body cramped up badly. Alcaraz continued to play, but the scores of the last two sets of the four-set match told the story: 6-1, 6-1.

This was the third Slam final in the past five events for Ruud, 24, from Norway, but he is now 0-3. He lost to Nadal at the French Open a year ago and to Alcaraz at the US Open in September.

Perhaps due to an awareness of all that was at stake, Djokovic, in his 34th major final, was the one who got off to a shaky start.

“Maybe feeling a bit nervous, little stressed,” Ruud said about his opponent.

But by the end the end of the first set, Djokovic was downright Djokovic-esque, as he was while taking 12 of the last 13 points of the match, most accompanied by spectators’ thunderous chants of his two-syllable nickname, “No-le! No-le! No-le!”

When one last miscue from Ruud landed out, Djokovic dropped onto his back with limbs spread wide.

“He kind of pressures you, in a way, to go for more risks, and that’s tough,” Ruud said. “He just stepped up, like he knows how to do.”

At first, Ruud seemed to do whatever he could to test Djokovic’s forehand, the weaker side. It paid off early, when Djokovic kept missing that stroke — into the net, wide, long — then made a different sort of mistake, shanking an overhead from near the net way beyond the opposite baseline to get broken and trail 2-0.

For whatever reason, that shot always has been Djokovic’s bête noire, and he missed another overhead later in the set.

Soon, Ruud led 4-1, thanks in part to Djokovic’s troubles. By then, Djokovic accumulated 13 unforced errors, while Ruud made just four.

And then everything changed.

After finishing the first set with 18 unforced errors, Djokovic recalibrated himself, with merely 14 over the last two sets combined.

Then it was Ruud’s turn to flub an overhead, rocking back and depositing his into the net to end a 29-stroke point. Djokovic’s first service break made it 4-3, and he shook his right fist.

“A bit devastating,” Ruud called it.

They went to a tiebreaker, truly Djokovic’s dominion. When the import rises, along with the tension, he simply excels. Has forever, it seems.

“He sort of just goes into this mode,” Ruud said, “where he just becomes like a wall.”

During the first-to-seven segment, Djokovic contributed four winners and zero unforced errors.

That made his career mark in tiebreakers 308-162, a winning percentage of .655. In 2023, he’s 15-4, including 6-0 in Paris — there were 55 points played across that half-dozen, and Djokovic’s sum total of unforced errors was zero.

“He just steps up,” Ruud said. “Either he plays ridiculous defense, or he plays beautiful winners. Just doesn’t do any mistakes.”

That set alone lasted 1 hour, 21 minutes, chock full of extended exchanges, the sort of points about which entire stories could be written. There were those that lasted 20, 25, 29 strokes. One was won by Ruud with the help of a back-to-the-net, between-the-legs shot. On another, Djokovic tumbled behind the baseline, smudging his red shirt, blue shorts and skin with the rust-colored clay.

Djokovic’s scrambling and stretching and bending and twisting on defense shows up on the scoreboard, for sure. But all of the long points also sap a foe’s energy and will.

“It’s just annoying for me,” Ruud said, “but it’s very, very impressive.”

Helps as well, maybe, that Djokovic knows all the little ins and outs. He complained to chair umpire Damien Dumusois about how much time was being allotted for changeovers — a little extra rest never hurt anyone, right? Djokovic took the 25-second serve clock down until it expired and occasionally beyond that, so much so that one voice from the seats exclaimed, “Serve it!” And Dumusois warned him for the time-taking in the third set.

When he broke Ruud to lead 3-0 in the second set, his powers now on full display, Djokovic jabbed his right index finger against his right temple over and over and over. He wheeled to face his nearby box in the stands, where the guests included his coach, Goran Ivanisevic, his wife and two children, his agent and even seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady.

The recently retired Brady is widely viewed as the NFL’s greatest of all time — or GOAT, for short — and there has been a debate in the tennis world for quite some time over which among Djokovic, Nadal or Federer deserves that sobriquet.

If the barometer is Grand Slam championships, no one can argue against Djokovic’s status at the moment.

“I leave those kind of discussions of ‘who is the greatest?’ to someone else. I have, of course, huge faith and confidence and belief [in] myself and for everything that I am and who I am and what I am capable of doing,” Djokovic said at his news conference, the Coupes des Mousquetaires at arm’s length, and his son and daughter in the room. “So, this trophy obviously is another confirmation of the quality of tennis that I’m still able to produce, I feel.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.