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      For Novak Djokovic, Two Down and Two, Maybe Three, to Go

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      He has won the Australian and French Opens, but achieving a Grand Slam won’t be easy. He must successfully defend Wimbledon. Then there’s the U.S. Open. And don’t forget about the Olympics.PARIS — With his 19th career Grand Slam singles title in hand, Novak Djokovic is chasing more tennis milestones unreservedly.No complexes. No playing it cool.“I’ve achieved some things that a lot of people thought it would not be possible for me to achieve,” he said Sunday after winning his second French Open.The odds were stacked against him from the start of his journey. His family were ski racers, not tennis players, and lacked the means to finance his career without considerable sacrifice. He grew up in Serbia in a time of conflict, when Serbia was an international pariah and traveling outside the country was a challenge.He still left home — for the first time at age 12 — and found a path to the top of a brutally competitive global sport. Perhaps more remarkably, he has endured at the top.He first reached No. 1 on July 4, 2011. Nearly 10 years later, he is amid another extended reign at No. 1 and to watch him think on his feet (or fly through the air with his elastic limbs) is to observe a form of tennis genius. His game is not as smooth and artful as Roger Federer’s. His point-by-point tenacity is not as obvious as Rafael Nadal’s. But he is the complete package, with no weaknesses other than an intermittently shaky overhead. He has become the sport’s most steely-eyed competitor, and while watching him ward off danger and big deficits, it is easy to forget that he was once considered a player without staying power, prone to midmatch retirements.Now, he is the one in everybody else’s head, and that could be helpful as he pursues, at the same time, the men’s record for Grand Slam singles titles and a so-called Golden Slam.Djokovic with the French Open’s Coupe des Mousquetaires, his second Grand Slam trophy this year.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesAfter winning in Paris, he is just one major singles title behind Federer and Nadal’s 20. But the chase that will generate bigger buzz is Djokovic’s attempt at age 34 to win all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic singles gold medal in the same calendar year.“He is so amazingly great that it would not surprise me, but it’s a perfect game in progress, so it’s difficult to talk about,” said Brad Gilbert, the coach and ESPN analyst, using a baseball analogy.Steffi Graf is the only player to have completed a Golden Slam. But Djokovic now has a chance to make his own run after winning the Australian Open and the French Open this year.Wimbledon, which starts on June 28 in London, is the next target. The Olympics in Tokyo and the U.S. Open in New York will follow.“Everything is possible,” Djokovic said. “And I did put myself in a good position to go for the Golden Slam, but I was in this position in 2016, as well. It ended up in a third-round loss in Wimbledon.”That defeat was a shock. When Wimbledon began in 2016, Djokovic had won four straight majors, although not in the same calendar year, and had just won the French Open for the first time. But he ran into Sam Querrey in the third round at the All England Club. Querrey, a tall and big-serving American who thrives on grass, upset him in a match that lasted two days because of rain delays.“If Novak is not the best returner of all time, he’s on the very, very short list,” said Craig Boynton, Querrey’s coach at the time, in an interview on Monday. “But from the start of that match, he just couldn’t read Sam’s serve, and Sam was hitting line after line.”Querrey won the first set in a tiebreaker and then rolled through the second set before play was suspended because of darkness. As this year’s French Open proved once more, Djokovic is adept at using off-court breaks to change the flow of a match. Against Querrey, he did the same, returning after a night’s sleep to win the third set but then failed to serve out the fourth. Querrey rallied to finish him off. Djokovic then went into a tailspin from which he did not emerge until the spring of 2018.Djokovic after he defeated Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2019.Nic Bothma/EPA, via ShutterstockTennis remains a game of momentum. If Djokovic defended his 2019 title at Wimbledon — last year’s tournament was canceled — and lost at the Olympics, he would still have a chance at the Grand Slam heading into the U.S. Open. Only two men have achieved a Grand Slam in singles: Don Budge of the United States in 1938 and Rod Laver of Australia in 1962 and 1969.No man has come close since then, although Serena Williams came within two matches of achieving it in 2015 before being upset in the semifinals of the U.S. Open by Roberta Vinci.“It gets more and more interesting as it builds,” Boynton said of a Grand Slam. “You saw what happened with Serena. She’s human. We’re all human, and so is Novak. I would think he would be able to handle it, but you just never know. You never know what stumbling block is right around the corner. Novak is making it look easy right now, but I’m telling you, it’s just not that easy.”Djokovic actually has not made it look easy over the last two months. He lost early in Monte Carlo and at the first of two tournaments in Belgrade, then fought his way through two tough matches before losing to Nadal in the final of the Italian Open. After winning the second tournament in Belgrade against a low-grade field, he came to Paris feeling better about his game but still had to overcome two-set deficits twice at Roland Garros and also had to play one of the matches of his life to defeat Nadal in a four-set semifinal.Djokovic played a match of his life against Rafael Nadal in the French Open semifinal.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesThere was also the extended scream he let rip after his quarterfinal victory over Matteo Berrettini that spoke volumes about the state of his inner peace. But Djokovic can change his mood as quickly as he changes directions on a tennis court. He has learned how to turn a negative into a positive, imagining that when fans chant Federer’s or some other opponents’ name they are actually cheering “Novak.”On Sunday, in the final against Stefanos Tsitsipas, Djokovic had pockets of support but the majority of the 5,000 fans were pulling for the newcomer. Djokovic still prevailed, draining some of the suspense from his comeback from two sets down by going up a break early in all three of the final sets.Djokovic gave a child who had cheered and coached him a hug and his racket after the final at Roland Garros.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesWhen it was over, he went to the side of the court and spoke with a boy in the front row, embracing him and giving him the racket he had used to close out the victory. “He was in my ear the entire match basically, especially when I was two sets to love down,” Djokovic explained when I asked him about it. “He was actually giving me tactics, as well. He was like, ‘Hold your serve, get an easy first ball, then dictate, go to his backhand.’ He was coaching me literally. I found that very cute, very nice.”Leave it to Djokovic, an expert at blocking out the static and focusing on the essential, to hear one of the few voices in a big crowd wishing him well.That skill could come in handy as he chases history. More

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      Now Halfway to a Grand Slam, Novak Djokovic Wins the French Open

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      Djokovic rallied to win three straight sets and defeat Stefanos Tsitsipas. It was his 19th major men’s singles title overall and his second this year.PARIS — Novak Djokovic beat Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece to win the French Open on Sunday, coming back from two sets down for his second stunning triumph in less than 48 hours.The 6-7 (6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 victory lasted more than four hours and capped a stirring tournament for Djokovic, who beat Rafael Nadal, a 13-time French Open champion, in a thrilling semifinal Friday night.“I played a lot of tennis in the past 48 hours against two great champions,” Djokovic said at the end.It was the second triumph in a Grand Slam event this year for Djokovic, who won the Australian Open in February, and the 19th in his career, just one behind Nadal and Roger Federer, who are tied for the career lead among men with 20.Djokovic, 34, has said that ending his career with more Grand Slam tournament titles than anyone else in history is one of the main motivations that keeps him playing tennis.“Everything is possible,” Djokovic said. “Definitely, in my case, I can say that.”He is now halfway to a Grand Slam — winning all four major tennis tournaments in a single year — something that no man has accomplished in more than 50 years. He is the defending champion at Wimbledon, which begins in two weeks.Djokovic, a Serb, has won Wimbledon five times, and he has won 12 Grand Slam titles on hardcourts, including three at the U.S. Open, which will take place in New York at the end of the summer.Tsitsipas, 22, is one of the rising stars in pro tennis. He was playing in his first Grand Slam final and was not expected to upset a player who has no equal in his sport at the moment, though he came close.Tsitsipas won the first two sets against Djokovic.Pete Kiehart for The New York Times“These are the kind of matches you learn from the most,” Djokovic said to Tsitsipas on the court.The match followed the four-set duel that Djokovic played against Nadal two days earlier. Djokovic immediately called that match one of the greatest of his career. It was easily his greatest win in Paris. This one was likely a close second, requiring Djokovic to recover from a violent tumble on the clay in the first set that staggered him badly.The title was Djokovic’s second at a French Open. He is now the only male player of the modern era to have won every Grand Slam tournament twice.And yet Sunday’s final was anything but a coronation, even if at first it looked like it would be. Djokovic compared beating Nadal at Roland Garros to climbing Mount Everest. Two days later, it turned out, he had to scale K2.Djokovic appeared to be on cruise control until midway through the first set. The score was tied, 3-3, but Djokovic had yet to lose a point on his serve, and he had put pressure on Tsitsipas during his service games. Tsitsipas had saved himself with four early aces. The match was tight, but it wasn’t close.Then Tsitsipas hit a drop shot that landed just a few feet from the net. Djokovic sprinted for it and stretched to get his strings on it, but as the ball hit the clay a second time, Djokovic lost his footing and tumbled to the clay, just missing a collision with the thick post that holds up the net.He stayed on the clay for several seconds. Tsitsipas and the chair umpire approached to see if he was OK. He said he was, but rose slowly and walked to his chair to dust himself off as the chair umpire picked up his racket.Djokovic returned to the court a minute later but slowly, and from that moment on, he was not moving the way he normally does.He winced as he twisted on his serves, and he could not finish his strokes the way he normally does, whipping his racket up by his ears.He stayed even with Tsitsipas in the first set, and broke him at 5-5 as Tsitsipas made two seemingly crucial errors. But serving for the set at 6-5, Djokovic made four errors of his own.In the tiebreaker, Tsitsipas spurted to 4-0 lead, only to see Djokovic get to set point at 6-5 as Tsitsipas took his own tumble across the clay and rose with dust all over the back of his shirt. But Tsitsipas blasted a winner to tie it once more, then forced two more errors from Djokovic to take the first set.The crowd reacted after Tsitsipas won the first set against Djokovic.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesBrimming with confidence and holding a one-set lead, Tsitsipas began smacking the ball with abandon, moving a seemingly hobbled Djokovic backward and forward and going to the net to finish off points. He broke Djokovic’s serve in the first game, then, leading, 4-2, laced a forehand down the line and forced Djokovic into yet another error to get his second break of serve.On the changeover, Djokovic smothered his face with his towel, exhibiting the kind of hopelessness and despondence he rarely does. A game later, Tsitsipas had a two-set lead, and the match was his to lose.Djokovic left the court after the second set, and underneath the stadium he gave himself an audible talking to, even though a voice inside his head was telling him the match was over. “I told myself, I can do it,” he said. “I encouraged myself.”It is one thing to win two sets in a Grand Slam match. It is another thing entirely to win the third one against a player who is on the verge of winning as many Grand Slam singles titles as any man who has ever picked up a racket.Leading, 2-1, in the third set, Djokovic started jumping on Tsitsipas’s serve for the first time in nearly an hour, pushing him back into the court and moving him from side to side. His shots started landing in spots that left Tsitsipas totally out of position once he caught up to them.It was as though Djokovic had finally figured out that if he didn’t have the strength to swing an ax he could still use a scalpel. His serve often struggled to get to 100 miles an hour. And at the same time, the precision that had been with Tsitsipas for much of the afternoon was gone.“I felt like he could read my game better,” Tsitsipas said.On the fifth break point of the game, Djokovic sent his return deep to Tsitsipas’s backhand, and Tsitsipas sent it back to the middle of the doubles alley. Djokovic had a lifeline, and five games later he had the third set. Tsitsipas called for a trainer to stretch his hips.Djokovic did not stop there.The fourth set resembled target practice, a series of surgical strikes from Djokovic that resulted in so many blasts long and wide, or easy balls to the middle of the court, from Tsitsipas. A masterly Djokovic backhand drop shot from behind the baseline gave Djokovic a second service break and a 3-0 lead. Tsitsipas had to battle just to keep the set from being embarrassing.After two weeks and three-plus hours of tennis, there was one set to play for the championship.Tsitsipas had been here before. He let a two-set lead slip away in the semifinals Friday against Alexander Zverev of Germany, only to recover to prevail in the fifth set. Against Djokovic, though, he could not summon the same resolve, no matter how much he tried to talk himself through it during the changeovers.Djokovic won three sets in a row to force a comeback victory.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesTrouble came early. Facing break point while serving at 2-1, Tsitsipas was slow to move his feet on a shot from Djokovic that nearly caught the baseline. Tsitsipas volleyed a backhand long. Roughly three hours after Djokovic served for the first set, he had a lead once more, and he was not going to give it up.“I tried my best. I tried as much as I could,” Tsitsipas said.With a match and a championship within reach, there may be no player who closes as clinically as Djokovic.Tsitsipas made one last stand, saving match point with a backhand winner to the corner. But on the final point, Djokovic worked his way to the net and put away the tournament with an overhead to an open court. It took him a bit to summon the energy to raise his hands in celebration.Halfway to a Grand Slam.“We said as coaches if he accomplishes the Grand Slam this year we are going to quit,” said Marian Vajda, Djokovic’s longtime coach. “I think it’s possible.” More

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      French Open Champion Krejcikova Thanks Her Mentor, Novotna

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      Barbora Krejcikova developed her multifaceted game with the help of the former Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna, who died in 2017.PARIS — Hand pointing to the sky, the new French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova gave credit where she knew it was due on Saturday.“I hope she’s happy,” Krejcikova said of Jana Novotna, the former Wimbledon champion who died of cancer in November 2017.In Krejcikova’s view, all of “this” — the surprise run to a Roland Garros title — would not have happened without Novotna’s influence on her career at a critical phase: the transition from juniors to the much more selective professional game.It was good fortune that Novotna was from Brno: the same Czech city as Krejcikova. But Krejcikova and her family made their own luck, too. She showed up with her parents at Novotna’s home in 2014 with a letter of introduction and a desire to find a tennis mentor who understood both the micro and macro of what it took to become great.The visit was her mother’s idea, but Krejcikova, then 18 and recovering from a recent illness, made her own case, and Novotna, to her surprise, was receptive.“She was just very nice, very warm,” Krejcikova said on Saturday. “She told me: ‘I have a court on Thursday in this club at this time. If you want to come, you can come. We can look at you, have a hit. We’re just going to see what’s going to come.’”Krejcikova told her that she had been ill.“Jana was like, ‘It doesn’t matter,’” Krejcikova said. “‘If you cannot hit, we can talk.’”Novotna training with Krejcikova in Prague in 2016.Pavel Lebeda/CTK, via Associated PressNovotna agreed to not only counsel her but also coach her and follow her on the circuit. Novotna’s contacts as a longtime leading player meant that Krejcikova had access to some quality hitting partners.“We were playing the legends tournament here at Roland Garros a few years ago, and Jana said, ‘Come hit with this girl I’m coaching,’” Martina Navratilova said on Saturday. “And I thought Barbora had good talent, but you still never think that it’s going to lead to something like this. She didn’t have any obvious weapons, but her brain is her big weapon. She has got the good hands. She has got the variety and then the brain to know when to use it.”Novotna, who died at 49, had variety and a sharp mind, too. She was a graceful mover with a one-handed backhand, committed to attacking the net behind chipped approach shots and then hitting angled volleys and overheads. It was a high-risk, eye-catching game and, like Krejcikova, she excelled in doubles, but her nerves betrayed her in her biggest singles matches through much of her career.In the moment that long defined her, she cracked and lost a big third-set lead in the 1993 Wimbledon to Steffi Graf. There should have been no shame in losing to Graf on any surface, but Novotna knew she had not done her own talent justice, and ended up crying on the Duchess of Kent’s shoulder during the trophy ceremony on Centre Court.Novotna had a happier ending at Wimbledon when she won the singles title in 1998 and accepted the champion’s trophy from the Duchess of Kent. It was Novotna’s only Grand Slam singles title, and it came at age 30 in her 45th Grand Slam singles appearance.Krejcikova took a different path. Though she is 25, she has had most of her success in doubles and may have more when she plays for the French Open women’s doubles title on Sunday with her partner Katerina Siniakova.But this was only her fifth Grand Slam singles tournament, and she handled the inevitable pressure with aplomb, saving five set points in the opening set of her straight-set victory over the 17-year-old American Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals and then saving a match point against Maria Sakkari in the semifinals before fighting through the momentum shifts of a three-set final against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Saturday.“I think Jana, who is well known for the emotional breakdown against Steffi and then winning Wimbledon, would have just been so impressed by Barbora’s composure,” said Rennae Stubbs, the former No. 1 doubles player who knew Novotna well and was another of Krejcikova’s early practice partners on tour. “Throughout the entire tournament, she just never looked stressed, and to be able to do that under these circumstances for somebody who had never gone through something this monumental is pretty extraordinary to be honest.”“I was a little bit panicking; I really wanted to win,” Krejcikova said. “On the other hand, I knew that if I really want to win, I’m just going to put so much pressure on myself that it’s not going to happen.”Benoit Tessier/ReutersThere were rare moments of agitation, including one shout to her player box during Saturday’s final, but Stubbs is correct that Krejcikova’s calm, focused demeanor was the rule at Roland Garros. Her pacing and breathing between points were measured; her gaze quickly went back to her strings or the clay after a point was completed. But she also showed touching flashes of humanity: applauding Gauff’s and Sakkari’s winners at critical phases of both matches.Her march to the final was nowhere near as smooth as it often looked. She felt overwhelmed before playing the American Sloane Stephens in the fourth round, crying before taking the court and speaking with her sports psychologist. She consulted her again before her victory over Sakkari and victory over Pavlyuchenkova. It was all new territory for Krejcikova, who had not been past the fourth round of a major tournament in singles before.“I was a little bit panicking; I really wanted to win,” she said. “On the other hand, I knew that if I really want to win, I’m just going to put so much pressure on myself that it’s not going to happen. We had the conversation about this. She just told me just to go and enjoy. We spoke about how to talk to myself, what to do when I’m going to feel nervous on court, just be happy that I’m actually there, all of this. That I’m already in the finals, it’s a big achievement that nobody really expected, not even me. I didn’t expect it as well.”What also helped was her experience in doubles. She and Siniakova also won their first Grand Slam final together, taking the title at the French Open in 2018 on the same center court where she won on Saturday.Krejcikova thanked Novotna after that victory, too, and on Saturday she reached a much bigger audience with the same message and the same hand pointed to the sky. This time, she received the champion’s trophy from Navratilova, who grew up in the Czech Republic before emigrating to the United States and was close with Novotna.Navratilova has shaped champions’ careers, too. It was at her suggestion that the future No. 1 Maria Sharapova, whom she had spotted at a Moscow clinic, moved to Florida with her father, Yuri, to pursue a tennis career. “It’s a small world, and you will touch many people along the way,” Navratilova said. But she also knows how long the odds are and how many prodigies, even with the right advice, do not make the transition to the highest level.She had agreed two months ago to present the trophy. She said she began watching the singles draw more and more closely as Krejcikova progressed.“I started thinking, Oh, my God, she could get to the final — and then it was, She could win the thing,” Navratilova said with a laugh. “I didn’t tell Barbora. She didn’t know I was doing the ceremony.”Predestined? Navratilova is not so certain, but she, like so many on Saturday, experienced a full-circle feeling as well as mixed emotions.“It was a beautiful victory,” Navratilova said. “But I really so wish that Jana could have been here to see it.” More

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      Barbora Krejcikova Wins the French Open

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      Unseeded but the sentimental favorite, Krejcikova defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in three sets to win the women’s singles title in Paris.PARIS — Barbora Krejcikova won the French Open Saturday, beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in three sets.For Krejcikova, 25, of the Czech Republic, the win marked the highlight of a late-blooming but suddenly exploding career, and capped a surprising tournament in which so many of the strongest players withdrew, retired, or were defeated early in the competition. Krejcikova was not seeded at this tournament but was a sentimental favorite, capturing the crowd’s heart with her emotional post-match speeches filled with words of inspiration and tributes to her mentor and role model, the former Czech champion Jana Novotna, who died at 49 in 2017.She has been best known in past years for her prowess in doubles and she will attempt to win that championship Sunday with her partner, Katerina Siniakova. Krejcikova, 25, who was ranked outside the top 100 as recently as recently as last September, has one of the most multifaceted playing styles on the women’s tour. She plays with any number of tricks and spins and possesses a dangerous moonball backhand that bounces high and can pin her opponents deep in the court. Power is not her thing, which makes her unusual in a sport obsessed with hitting hard. But what she lacks in power she makes up for in creativity. In Pavlyuchenkova, 29, she faced a former teenage prodigy who had never made it past the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. Despite that frustration, Pavlyuchenkova has displayed remarkable durability, playing in every Grand Slam between the 2008 French Open until the 2020 United States Open. Other than a semifinal appearance in Madrid last month, Pavlyuchenkova’s performances the past six months gave few hints that she would have the run of her career at this French Open. Despite Pavlyuchenkova’s advantages and bigger reputation, Krejcikova beguiled her on the biggest points, playing a form of tennis jujitsu that is rarely seen. More

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      At the French Open Grounds, a Guided Tour of Change

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      PARIS — In my 30th year of covering the French Open, I am in need of a map.The courts where I have watched so many matches on the crushed red brick of Roland Garros are almost all gone — demolished or remodeled beyond recognition, like the main Philippe Chatrier Court with its retractable roof. Passageways that led somewhere familiar now run into concrete walls or freshly painted gates or take you to new-age landscapes like the sculpture garden behind Chatrier with its rows of ocher deck chairs and its cruise ship vibe.All four of the Grand Slam tournaments have been on a building spree, but Roland Garros at this stage is the major that seems the most transformed.It is the one I know — or used to know — best. I covered it for the first time in 1991, the year Monica Seles defended her title and Jim Courier beat Andre Agassi in that distant time when all-American men’s finals were all the rage in Grand Slam tournaments. Most important for me, 1991 was the year I married Virginie, a Parisian, and moved to France from San Diego.In the early years, we lived in a studio apartment a few blocks from Roland Garros’s back gate. That meant that for two precious weeks a year, a tennis writer could walk to work from home, and I sometimes shared the commute with French players, like Guillaume Raoux, who had the good fortune to play a Grand Slam tournament in their own neighborhood.Roland Garros is technically in Paris, on the southwestern limits of the 16th Arrondissement. But in feeling, it is closer to village life. The vast Bois de Boulogne park is on one border. Low-rise, suburban Boulogne-Billancourt is on the other.Even with the expansion into the nearby botanical gardens in 2019, Roland Garros’s footprint is still the smallest of the Grand Slam tournaments, but the expansion also has made it the most eye-catching of the majors.You could already watch tennis in Paris with the shadows lengthening across the clay in the early evening, one of the most photogenic moments in sports. Now you can watch tennis in a greenhouse, too.It is high time for a visit to the new Roland Garros, and in lieu of a map, I called in a tour guide: Gilles Jourdan, who was once a ball boy at the tournament but is now the silver-haired manager of the stadium’s modernization project.Where’s the Bullring?A packed court one during the third-round men’s singles match between Santiago Giraldo of Colombia and Andy Murray of Great Britain on Day 7 of the 2012 French Open.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesThere was no better seat in tennis journalism than in Court 1. In the front row along the baseline, you were so close to the action that you sometimes had to lean back to avoid a player’s swing on a wide return. Best of all was the venue: a 3,800-seat theater in the round known as the Bullring. It wasn’t the prettiest court in tennis, but it got something the architect, Jean Lovera, a former French junior champion, had not anticipated: acoustics that accentuated the strike of the ball. Courier used to love the unique thwack.“The sound moves and resonates in a bit of a different way,” Lovera told me in 2010. “And as it turns out, I think it lends itself to generating emotions and making temperatures rise and getting reactions from both the players and the crowd that are stronger than usual.”I can only concur, having once watched the Russian star Marat Safin drop his shorts midmatch to celebrate a drop-shot winner. But the Bullring and the sound effects are gone — demolished after the 2019 tournament to provide more space. The idea was to replace Court 1 with an open lawn, a flat French version of Wimbledon’s Aorangi Terrace, better known as Henman Hill. But there is not much open lawn this year. The void left by Court 1 has been filled by paving stones, new walkways, a coffee bar and other diversions.The Musketeers are backThe Place des Mousquetaires, former site of the Bullring.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesRoland Garros was built in a hurry in 1928 because of four men: Henri Cochet, Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon and René Lacoste, who was not yet a brand in those distant days. They were known as the mousquetaires (Alexandre Dumas’s novels were even bigger then), and in 1927, they won the Davis Cup in the United States against a team that included Bill Tilden. The Davis Cup, a team event, was as prestigious in those days as Grand Slam titles are today, and a new stadium was constructed in less than a year to accommodate France’s Davis Cup defense.The Italian sculptor Vito Tongiani made bronze statues of the musketeers in the 1980s and the early 1990s. They were put on display at Roland Garros and then stored during renovations. But they are back this year in the new Musketeers Garden, sharing space during the tournament with the deck chairs and a big-screen television. The last buildingThe cottage that is the last of the buildings from 1928 on the grounds of Roland Garros.Pete Kiehart for The New York Times“It’s in bad shape,” Jourdan said, standing next to a large, half-timbered cottage with some cracked windows that sits on the northeastern boundary of the grounds.It is largely out of view this year, used for catering supplies, but it deserves the spotlight. After all the demolition and renovation, it is the last building standing that was there in 1928, spared because of its links to the past even though sentimentality has not saved much else.The cottage predates the stadium. It was the clubhouse for a private tennis club whose clay courts became part of the original Roland Garros. “Above all, during the musketeers’ years, they changed in there,” Jourdan said. “It was the locker room.”It later became a gardeners’ shed and then a dormitory for young tennis prospects who were training at Roland Garros. The most famous former occupant is Yannick Noah, who went on to win the French Open in 1983 and become a pop star. He remains one of the most popular figures in France.The AshesGilles Jourdan, the manager of the stadium modernization project.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesA monument to Étienne-Jules Marey that also contains his remains.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesRoland Garros preferred rugby and has his name on a tennis stadium only because his friends wanted to honor his memory; he was an aviator and a fighter pilot who died in combat in the final days of World War I. But the stadium also honors another figure who was not a tennis player: the French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey, who died in 1904 and whose experiments with “chronophotography” helped lay the foundations for modern cinema.A research institute bearing his name, the Institut Marey, was opened on the current site of Roland Garros in 1903 and remained in place for 50 years after the stadium was built, allowing scientists, sometimes in white lab coats, to watch matches from the roof. But it was demolished to make way for Court 1’s construction in 1980, with the agreement that a monument to Marey would remain part of the stadium in perpetuity. The marble bas-relief monument, which contains some of Marey’s ashes, has moved around the grounds through the decades, but it is now in a prominent location in the new garden. “During the construction, Mr. Marey stayed in my office for two years,” Jourdan said with a chuckle, referring to Marey’s ashes. “I’m not sure the family would have approved, but he’s back where he belongs now.”A grander entranceCourt 2 during the 2001 French Open, with the old Chatrier Court in the background.Clive Brunskill/ALLSPORT, via Getty ImagesThe Bullring’s demise is a pity, but the loss that really hurts is the old Court 2. It was my favorite spot: a close-quarters drama magnet where coaches, off-duty players and members of the news media shared the same box, entering through a door that felt like the portal to a secret garden. I once interviewed Boris Becker on a changeover.Built in 1928, it was a two-tiered court, so cozy it seemed that the fans on the upper tier were hovering over the players as they traded blows. But the expansion of the Chatrier Court left no room for Court 2, and its departure has made way for a new main entrance that allows the public to descend into Roland Garros down a wide flight of stone stairs.Jourdan remembers the old entrance, which was nearby. “In those days, the center court had no reserved seating, so as soon as the gates opened it was a sprint for the best spots,” he said. “One year, it rained, so the stones were wet, and people went down in a heap when they ran around the corner. We weren’t laughing then, but we laughed later.”There are no more morning sprints, and as you walk down the stairs, you cannot help but stop to gawk at another new statue: Rafael Nadal in larger-than-life stainless steel, following through on an airborne forehand. Nadal has, of course, turned Roland Garros into his personal playground, winning a record 13 singles titles. It is a measure of Nadal’s achievement that the first thing you see when you enter one of France’s great showplaces is a Spaniard.The oasisA small pond nestled among plants labeled with their scientific names at the entrance to the Jardins des Serres d’Auteuil.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesWe will see how the remodeled grounds work in 2022, but Roland Garros has long been oppressively overcrowded, like a rush-hour commuter train disguised as a Grand Slam tournament. For years, I would sneak away at lunchtime to the adjacent Serres d’Auteuil gardens with my ham-and-cheese baguette (and fondant au chocolat). It was a peaceful moment, although not a silent one. You could still hear the roars from the courts and the chair umpires calling the scores, which was handy in the days before the Roland Garros app.Now, after a long legal battle, one section of the gardens is officially part of Roland Garros. You can walk on a charming cobblestoned thoroughfare flanked by lovely 19th-century buhrstone buildings before arriving at the world’s only show court in a greenhouse: a semi-sunken 10,000-seat stadium that opened in 2019. It is a world apart after a short walk and a stroke of genius if you ask me, even if a few of the exotic plants appear to be wilting under glass and even if my secret picnic spot is definitely no more.Le shoppingThe Grande Boutique, a nearly 1,500-square-meter shopping space under Courts 2 and 3.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesRoland Garros has long had great loot, often too great on a sportswriter’s salary. The prices have not gone down, but the shopping has. A new and sprawling megastore has opened underground this year, and “megastore” sounds a lot better in French: La Grande Boutique. The long walk (or ride)Court 16, the westernmost court in the complex, is used exclusively for practice.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesIt is nearly a kilometer now from one end of the grounds to the other. It is a trek, but the players can make it faster than the masses, because they can travel below ground in the system of tunnels that connects the main Chatrier Court with the hinterlands.Players make part of the journey in golf carts to save their energy. We did it on foot with Jourdan, passing from tunnels to underground parking lots to walkways to a staircase that brought us back into the sunlight at Courts 15 and 16. These are the only fully dedicated practice courts left in Roland Garros, and I used to play here, too, but not on these courts and not on red clay.This area was once a public tennis facility with asphalt hardcourts before the French Tennis Federation took possession, as it has inexorably taken possession of all the nearby property on the same wedge of land as Roland Garros. You can understand the urge when you look at the size of the U.S.T.A.’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center or the plans for the next mammoth expansion of Wimbledon into the adjacent golf course. The competition among the Grand Slam tournaments is real, and one of the reasons the French Open stayed in Paris in 2012 instead of moving to bigger digs in Versailles was the promise of more land. Something still familiarChristopher Clarey in the stairwell leading to the news media seats at Court Suzanne Lenglen.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesJennifer Brady and Coco Gauff facing each other at Suzanne Lenglen Court.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesJourdan, it has to be said, is a great tour guide — witty, convivial and informative. I am no longer in need of a map, but nostalgia is tough to shake. So before heading back to the Chatrier Court with all its glass and steel, I made a final stop at Suzanne Lenglen Court, the second-biggest show court at Roland Garros. The court has been a fine place to watch tennis for nearly 30 years.I saw Roger Federer make his Grand Slam debut on that court in 1999 against Patrick Rafter — and lose in a backward ball cap. Lots of memories there, so I walked up the stairs, turned left and took a seat. No matches were on this late in the second week. The net was down, and a big-screen television was in place, but it still felt reassuringly familiar, and so it will remain until the new retractable roof goes up in 2024, in time for the Paris Olympics.I should have seen that coming. More

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      In Making the French Open Final, Djokovic Edges Closer to His Rivals

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      Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal in four fierce sets and will try to win his 19th Grand Slam title against Stefanos Tsitsipas on Sunday. PARIS — This golden age of men’s tennis got a little shinier on Friday night. It is harder to deepen the impression at this advanced stage: after all the comebacks, marathon duels and winners under pressure over nearly 20 years of close character study. But Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, in their 58th meeting, still found something inside themselves that spoke to their public, which was allowed the privilege of staying in their seats past the 11 p.m. curfew by the French authorities.It was the right move on many levels. It might have prevented a riot, but above all it was welcome because clearing the main Philippe Chatrier Court would have stopped the flow of a great match that was transcendent in part because of the force of its tidal shifts.The third set was the best example, and one of the most compelling sets to be played at Roland Garros: 91 minutes of grit and pure talent reflected in both grinding rallies and bold swipes of the racket from all sorts of compromised positions. No two tennis players have been better at turning defense into offense, and no two men have played each other more often in singles in the Open era.It was 5-0 Nadal after five games, but Djokovic worked his way back with deep focus, channeling his intensity. There were no screams on Friday night like the one he produced after beating Matteo Berrettini on this same court on Wednesday in another late night match.As against Federer in the 2019 Wimbledon final, Djokovic seemed to grasp that he did not have mental energy to squander. He prevailed on Friday because he was the steadier flame down the stretch and the more devastating returner.Nadal won no fewer than 73 percent of his first-serve points against his first five opponents in Paris this year. He won 59 percent against Djokovic. Nadal faced 22 break points combined in his first five matches. He faced 22 break points in one night against Djokovic, who can absorb pace and read service directions like no other.After his brilliant 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory, Djokovic has a chance to win his 19th Grand Slam singles title on Sunday.Nadal and Roger Federer are tied for the career men’s lead at 20 and might remain forever tied. But Djokovic is closing and, as he proved again on Friday night, he remains capable of beating the men on their surfaces of choice.He also holds the career edge over both: 27-23 over Federer and 30-28 over Nadal who could have reeled him back in with a victory.Nadal reacted after his loss on Friday.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesDjokovic is now the only man to have beaten Nadal twice in Roland Garros, with the first victory coming in the 2015 quarterfinals when Nadal was in a rare funk.But Djokovic’s achievement this year is more impressive when you consider that Nadal had beaten him five times in a row on clay, including last year’s straight-set romp in the French Open final and last month’s Italian Open final.Though the mood leaned toward superlatives on Friday night, they have played consistently high quality matches against each other (the 2018 Wimbledon semifinal) and longer matches (the 2012 Australian Open final).Nadal had moments of greatness in this semifinal, but was not routinely great, missing backhands by the bunch and losing his way in the crucial third-set tiebreaker with a double fault and a rare missed forehand volley into an open court.“These kind of mistakes can happen, but if you want to win, you can’t make these mistakes,” Nadal said with typical clarity and humility.Certainly not against a champion of Djokovic’s caliber. The crowd, limited to 5,000, sensed the vulnerability and urged Nadal on. It was a sign of how his relationship has deepened with the Roland Garros public. When he lost to Robin Soderling in 2009, he was wounded by the crowd’s hostility. But he has earned their respect and some of their allegiance with his point-by-point commitment. Djokovic had his share of support as well, but to get to 19, he still has one more hurdle, and though he will be a favorite in the final, the 5th-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas should not be underestimated.Tsitsipas, a hirsute Greek with a one-handed backhand and an all-court game, has beaten Djokovic twice already on Djokovic’s favorite surface: outdoor hardcourts. Tsitsipas is prepared for this late stage in a major, and his purposeful walk between points is a hint at his inner drive and aggressive instincts. He can win points in all manner of ways, but his best chance against Djokovic may reside in pushing forward.They played in the semifinals of last year’s outlier of a French Open, staged in October after the French Tennis Federation shifted the dates because of the pandemic. Djokovic won the first two sets, but Tsitsipas rallied to force a fifth set and then ran out of steam more than belief, losing 6-1.Stefanos Tsitsipas celebrated his semifinal victory on Friday.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesThat is the challenge against Djokovic. He has the endurance and resilience under pressure to take your best shots, find solutions and impose his will in long Grand Slam matches. While it is tempting to think that Djokovic might be diminished by Friday’s 4 hour 11 minute effort, he already has proved that he can bounce back.“It’s not the first time I play an epic semifinal in a Grand Slam and then I have to come back in less than 48 hours and play the final,” he said.He has until late Sunday afternoon, and it bears remembering that Tsitsipas played a taxing five set semifinal on Friday as he held off Alexander Zverev.“It’s time for me to show that I’m capable,” Tsitsipas said of Djokovic.The Big Three have formed an unprecedented roadblock to the younger set, disrupting the normal cycle of men’s tennis. Federer is now an outsider at 39 but still a contender on quick courts like Wimbledon and is already back on the grass in Halle, Germany. Nadal just turned 35, and Djokovic recently turned 34.The majors, not the No. 1 ranking, are his clear focus and after beating Nadal in Paris, thoughts of a Grand Slam are hardly out of the question. Djokovic once held all four major titles, but neither he nor Federer nor Nadal has completed a Grand Slam by winning all four major singles titles in the same calendar year. No man has achieved it since Rod Laver in 1969.No matter how much it felt like a final, it was only the last step to the final, and now Djokovic will try to win his second French Open after beating the man who has won an improbable 13. More

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      Stefanos Tsitsipas Beats Zverev to Reach French Open Final

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      Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 22-year-old rising star from Greece, will play in his first Grand Slam final Sunday.Tsitsipas survived five-sets of testosterone-fueled tennis Friday, staving off a stirring comeback from Alexander Zverev of Germany Friday, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3 in the first men’s semifinal. He will play the winner of the heavyweight matchup between Rafael Nadal, the 13-time French Open champion, and Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1.Tsitsipas, a passionate player and person who makes films in his spare time, fought back tears in an interview on the court after the match. “All I can think of is my roots where I came from a small place outside Athens, my dream was to play here,” he said. He is the first Greek player to make a Grand Slam final.Tsitsipas has now beaten two players ranked in the top six to reach the final and has dropped just a single set in six matches.Tsitsipas was in control from the beginning of match, breaking Zverev in his first service game and cruising for an early lead. Zverev, 24, a lanky and powerful player who has made the semifinal round in four of the past five Grand Slams, stepped up in the second set, surging to a 3-1 lead, only for Tsitsipas to raise his game even higher.With Zverev searching for tight angles, Tsitsipas chased down every shot. And when he reached the balls, he showed off every ounce of creativity.He has the power to exert intense pressure on an opponent, a sneaky backhand drop shot, and at 6-foot-4, an intimidating net game. Exerting all three at once, he reeled off five straight games to take the second set as Zverev got sloppy, spraying his strokes wide and long. More

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      In French Open, Women's Singles Finals Take Surprising Shape

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      The unseeded Barbora Krejcikova has advanced to face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the No. 31 seed, in the singles final of the French Open.PARIS — The 2021 French Open will be remembered for its endless surprises. Stars withdrew. Top players lost early.The trend continued Thursday as two long shots surged into the women’s championship match. Elite women’s tennis has been without clear and consistent winners for a while now, but a final between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic was a scenario no one would have predicted.Pavlyuchenkova, seeded 31st, defeated the unseeded Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia, 7-5, 6-3, in the semifinals. Krejcikova, also unseeded, upset the No. 17 seed, Maria Sakkari of Greece, 7-5, 4-6, 9-7, in a match with wild momentum swings and match points on both sides of the net, even one that involved an overturned line call.Pavlyuchenkova, 29, is a veteran, having turned professional in 2005. Krejcikova, 25, is more of a late bloomer, having arrived in 2014. But neither had reached a Grand Slam semifinal before, and it showed as they triumphed despite multiple lost service games in nearly every set and more errors than most players could survive. Yet the effort was enough for each of them, if only barely.“I always wanted to play a match like this,” Krejcikova said through tears when her 3-hour, 18-minute match was finished. “Even if I lost today, I would be very proud of myself, just fighting. In here and also in life, fighting is the most important thing.”There have been just two multiple Grand Slam women’s singles winners in the past four years, the opposite of what has happened in an absurdly top-heavy men’s game, which has been dominated for so long by three of the all-time greats.Women’s tennis more closely resembles golf. At the beginning of a Grand Slam event, dozens of women seemingly have a shot to play deep into the tournament.“There is so much depth,” Tom Hill, Sakkari’s coach, said ahead of the semifinal. “Now it’s first round, second round, you’re playing against top players that can play.”Of the two finalists, Krejcikova is the bigger surprise. Her game is filled with off-speed forehands and sliced backhands. Her service returns tend to be looping backhands. She usually displays limited power and an approach that seems completely out of step with the smash-mouth style that so many women bring to the court today.In Sakkari, Krejcikova faced a gym rat who has worked with a fitness trainer since she was 14 and who prepares for tennis like a world-class sprinter. Sakkari, 25, loves being in the weight room nearly as much as she enjoys being on the tennis court. Heard that old saw about her muscles having muscles? That is Sakkari.Musculature, though, does not win tennis tournaments. Deft shotmaking and surprise can often overcome power.Sakkari struggled with prosperity all afternoon, coughing up an early lead in the first set, then barely surviving the second one after leading by 4-0. But as Sakkari was drawing even and rallying the crowd behind her, Krejcikova headed for a bathroom break that lasted several minutes longer than the usual in-match pit stop. Sakkari took the court alone and complained to the umpire to get things moving or perhaps issue a warning.Sakkari’s power was no match for Krejcikova’s deft shot-making.Christophe Archambault/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWhen play resumed, Sakkari once more took an early lead with a service break, and had match point with Krejcikova serving at 3-5. Krejcikova saved it with a swinging backhand volley, then broke Sakkari’s serve in the next game, forcing her to make a series of errors on long rallies packed with Krejcikova’s deep, lob-like backhands.After nearly three hours, Krejcikova had figured out the winning formula. It took six more games — as Sakkari saved four match points but could not stop over-hitting, making 27 errors in the final set — for the result to become official.On the court after the match, Krejcikova thanked Jana Novotna, a Czech compatriot who struggled for years to win a Grand Slam championship until she finally claimed the Wimbledon title in 1998. When Krejcikova was a teenager, she and her parents asked Novotna for help breaking into tennis. Novotna gave it. She died of cancer in 2017 at 49.“She is watching over me,” Krejcikova said.In the other semifinal, Pavlyuchenkova ended years of frustration. She had come up short in six Grand Slam quarterfinals before prevailing on Thursday in Paris.Pavlyuchenkova provided few hints in recent months that a run of this sort was in the offing. She made the semifinal in Madrid last month but had little else to brag about. She lasted barely an hour at the Australian Open, losing badly to Naomi Osaka, the eventual champion, in the first round.But in her first Grand Slam semifinal, Pavlyuchenkova had the good fortune to face a player ranked 86th in the world.Pavlyuchenkova was hardly in control: She lost her serve twice in the first set, and twice more in the second. But she was far better than Zidansek, a 23-year-old whose inexperience and nerves showed as she lost her serve six times and committed 33 unforced errors compared with 22 for Pavlyuchenkova. Zidansek double-faulted into the middle of the net on set point, and sent a shot she easily could have put away a foot wide on match point.Zidansek had come back from a set down three times during the tournament, and twice won third sets in the equivalent of tennis overtime (9-7 and 8-6) but could not muster the same resilience against Pavlyuchenkova.Pavlyuchenkova was asked Thursday what her younger self might say now that she had finally reached the ultimate match.“What took you so long?” she said.“It’s been a long road,” she continued. “I had my own long special road. Everybody has different ways.” More