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John McEnroe was left in awe of Novak Djokovic after the Serbian recovered from two sets to one down with a knee injury to beat Francisco Cerundolo and reach the French Open quarter-finals. It was the second match in a row Djokovic was forced to dig deep and come back from the brink of defeat as he won back-to-back five-setters for the first time in 12 years.
John McEnroe admitted he was “mesmerised” by Novak Djokovic after the Serbian once again came back from two sets to one down to keep his hopes of a fourth French Open title alive.
After winning a five-set epic against Lorenzo Musetti at 3:07am on Sunday morning, Djokovic was back on Court Philippe-Chatrier just 36 hours later and repeated the feat in a marathon encounter with Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo.
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However, just as he has done so many times throughout his career, he defied the odds to recover from 4-2 down in the fourth to clinch the final two sets and move into the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros for an 18th time.
“I can’t recall seeing anything like it, honestly,” McEnroe said on commentary for Eurosport. “At his age, any age, to continue doing what he does at this level and find a way.”
McEnroe later added: “I’ve been involved in tennis for 50 years, I played 15 years on the tour, I’ve been doing this, commentating, for the last 30 years and I still am mesmerised and amazed that this guy can pull this off at this point.
“We were talking earlier in the match about how the last time he’d won back-to-back five-set matches was 12 years ago – he was 25 years old.
“He won two matches in Australia, he beat [Rafael] Nadal and [Andy] Murray in two epic five-setters and yet at 37, how does this guy still find a way to pull these matches out?
“He played to 3am in the morning and then recovers and gets down two sets to one and 4-2, somehow wins that, gets up 2-0 in the fifth, blows that, and still wins. It’s truly amazing.”
