Djokovic clinches record 23rd Grand Slam title with French Open final win

Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated Norway’s Casper Ruud in the French Open final on Sunday, clinching a record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam title to become the most successful singles player in the history of the men’s game.

Djokovic overcame a wobbly start on Court Philippe Chatrier to beat Ruud in straight sets, 7-6 (7/1), 6-3, 7-5, breaking the 22-Slam tie he shared with Rafael Nadal, the “King of Clay”, on the Spaniard’s favourite court.

The only player to have reached seven finals at each Grand Slam tournament, he is now the first man to win three titles at each – a feat only Margaret Court, Steffi Graf and Serena Williams have achieved in the women’s game.

Court’s all-time mark of 24 will be in his sights when he heads to Wimbledon next month.

Djokovic won his first Grand Slam title 15 years ago at the Australian Open in Melbourne, which he went on to win nine more times. He’s collected seven at Wimbledon, three at the US Open and now three at the French Open, too.

Nadal, whose absence due to injury weighed heavily on the tournament this year, was quick to hail his “amazing achievement” in a tweet on Sunday, adding: “23 is a number that just a few years back was impossible to think about”.

Victory over Ruud means Djokovic will return to the world number one ranking for an extraordinary 388th week, replacing 20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, whom the bookmakers had imprudently labelled the hot favourite ahead of their semi-final on Friday.

Grand Slam quest

At 36, Djokovic is chasing down the few records he has yet to set or equal. He has made it clear that the quest for further Grand Slam glory is what powers him on at an age when tennis stars are normally retired or well past their prime.

“That’s basically what still drives me when I wake up in the morning and think about the season and think about things I want to achieve,” he said after his defeat of a cramping Alcaraz – a tussle that proved Djokovic can still outmuscle, outsmart and outlast all others.

His 24-year-old opponent was playing in his third Grand Slam final, a year after he was soundly beaten here by his hero and mentor Nadal.

Taking on Djokovic – a 34-time Grand Slam finalist – was an equally daunting task for Ruud, the No 4 seed, who went into the final having failed to win a single set against the Serb in their four previous meetings, two of them on clay.

Still, the Norwegian could point to his prowess on the surface, having won more matches (87) and titles (9) than any other player on clay since 2020. He enjoyed a smooth run into the final at Roland Garros, capped off by a methodical straight-sets demolition of Alexander Zverev in the semis.

Ruud falls short again

Ahead of the final, Ruud said he would strive to put feelings aside and “just try to enjoy” himself. He showed no sign of jitters when play began on Court Philippe Chatrier, holding for love in the opening game before breaking the Djokovic serve in the next, when the Serb bundled an overhead shot.

It would be the Norwegian’s only break of serve throughout the final.

Just three games later, it was Ruud’s turn to surrender his serve by hitting an easy smash into the net after a gruelling 28-stroke rally. The two players then slogged their way to a tie-breaker, in which the Serb was always favoured to prevail.

As so often in the 34 Grand Slam finals he has played, Djokovic pressed his foot on the pedal when it mattered, racing to a 6-1 lead in the decider before closing out the set with a backhand winner.

From there on it was all downhill for “Nole”, who methodically pummelled his opponent’s weaker backhand, poking holes in the Norwegian’s steely defence and forcing him into costly errors.

“Another day, another record. Every day you rewrite tennis history,” Ruud told Djokovic after the match, as he collected his runner-up award for the second year in a row. Speaking in French, the Serb said it was an “incredible feeling” to win a 23rd major – and to do so at Roland Garros, the tournament that “has always been the hardest for me to win”.

With victories in Melbourne and Paris, Djokovic is once again halfway to an historic calendar Grand Slam, a sweep of all four majors in the same year, which no male player has achieved since Rod Laver in 1969 – and which he came agonizingly close to completing in 2021.

The chase for records goes on.