Novak Djokovic ‘becomes an animal’ when the chips are down, says former world No 1

Novak Djokovic does not know when he is beaten and he becomes a different beast when he is up against it during big matches, according to tennis great Mats Wilander.

Defending French Open champion Djokovic pulled yet another rabbit out of the hat, this time at 3:08am (01:08 GMT) on Sunday morning as he edged past Lorenzo Musetti in a five-set cliff-hanger on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

The 24-time Grand Slam winner was staring down the barrel as Musetti was leading two sets to one, but he somehow managed to escape and came away with a 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 win in four hours and 29 minutes

Seven-time Grand Slam winner Wilander was in awe of Djokovic who simply refuses to know when he is beaten, even at the age of 37.

“The guy is not a human being, he becomes an animal on the best courts in the world; such a perfect example of what great champions are able to do even when things are not going their way the whole time,” he told Eurosport .

“It’s one of the reasons he’s still out there and still beating records, because initially he doesn’t care about records, he cares about beating Musetti only for four and a half hours until three o’clock in the morning until someone reminds him.

“‘Yes, I know I’ve broken another record’, but for him, the day-to-day business is what is so amazing and what we couldn’t do for that long.

“He is 37 years old, and he’s still living day to day, moment to moment. How do you do that, Novak? This kind of match, you’d think ‘Get out of here, Novak. Go home, you have kids at home’. But he refuses to do that.”

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

What made Djokovic’s win over Musetti even more impressive was the fact that he started the French Open under a cloud as he suffered a string of disappointing defeats.

He arrived in Paris with a 14-6 record, having suffered defeats against Tomas Machac in Geneva and Alejandro Tabilo in Italy.

The world No 1 kicked off his campaign with straight-set wins over Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Roberto Carballes Baena before finally being tested by Musetti.

The Serbian himself admitted he was fearing the worst, but the spectators helped him to get over the finish line.

“I was in real trouble on the court and he was playing some really amazing tennis. I didn’t know really what to do,” he explained.

“From both hands, he was getting a lot of balls back, winners from both corners. Good serves running every ball down the court. It didn’t feel great playing him that third set and the beginning of the fourth.

“The [crowd] started chanting my name and I just felt a great new wave of willpower and energy. I really needed that push, I really needed that energy.

“I think I was a different player from that moment onwards. And I think from that moment, I probably lost only one game in the rest of the match. I was on a high, riding that wave.”

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