Two big favourites emerge for French Open glory – and Novak Djokovic is not one of them

Two leading contenders have emerged in the opening week of the French Open in the men’s draw and for the first time in a decade or more, Novak Djokovic is not among them.

World No 1 Djokovic battled back from a perilous position to keep the defence of his Roland Garros title on track in a match that finished shortly after 3am on Sunday morning.

Djokovic endured the latest finish in Roland Garros history as he beat Lorenzo Musetti in five sets to reach the fourth round, with the last ball struck at 3.08am local time.

The rain had wrecked another day on the outside courts in Paris so tournament chiefs decided to squeeze in an unfinished match under the roof on Court Phillipe Chatrier before Djokovic took on Musetti in the night session.

But by the time Grigor Dimitrov had completed a four-set win over Zizou Bergs in a match lasting just shy of four hours in total, Djokovic, due to start at 8.15pm, did not get on the court until 10.40pm.

“I don’t want to get into it,” said the defending champion. “I have my opinions but I think there are great things to talk about as we are talking about this match and both Lorenzo’s and my performance stands out.

“I don’t want to be talking about schedule. I think some things could’ve been handled differently. But there’s beauty, as well, winning the match at 3.30am if it’s the last one of the tournament.

“It’s not so I’m going to have to switch on all of my young genes and try and recover as quick as possible.”

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The win against Musetti confirmed Djokovic still has the desire to fight for glory at the top of the sport as he chases a remarkable 25th Grand Slam title, but he may not have enough in his locker on current form to fend of young guns Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz if he meet them in the latter stages of the tournament.

Sinner and Alcaraz came into Roland Garros with huge injury doubts, but their opening matches have banished those concerns.

Sinner was nursing a hip problem that forced him to pull out of the Madrid Open and miss the Rome Masters event on home soil in Italy.

Alcaraz also had big questions to answer as he has been troubled by a forearm injury that was affecting him hitting his venomous forehand with its menacing power.

Yet Alcaraz has cruised into a quarter-final clash against Stefanos Tsitsipas without any sign of the injury affecting him, even though he has been wearing a sleeve to support his injured right arm.

Alcaraz and Sinner are due to meet in the semi-finals at Roland Garros if they reach that phase of the tournament and history tells us that both will be major threats to Djokovic if he can get through to another French Open final.

Alexander Zverev and Casper Ruud are primed to provide Djokovic with his biggest hurdles on his route to the final next Sunday and if he gets that far, the world No 1 may have played himself into the kind of form he will need to be in to beat his two biggest rivals.

Djokovic is also fighting to cling on to his world No 1 ranking as he battles for glory in Paris, but it feels like the tipping point is arriving that will see the greatest player of them all usurped at the top of the men’s game.

Writing off Djokovic is a fool’s game, but the performances of Sinner and Alcaraz at Roland Garros so far suggest they deserve to be viewed as the tournament favourites.