Marco Cecchinato might just keep the run of his life going at Roland Garros. The 25-year-old Italian leads 2016 champion Novak Djokovic 6-3 after a clean and aggressive start from the Gazprom Hungarian Open champion on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.
Cecchinato dropped only five (20/25) points on serve and broke in the fourth game to cruise to a one-set lead. The Italian was fearless, hugging the baseline at times to take the ball early from the Serbian. But Cecchinato also played a thinking man's game, drop shotting Djokovic with success. The winner will face Dominic Thiem, a 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 winner against Alexander Zverev earlier Tuesday.
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Before Paris, Cecchinato hadn't won a Grand Slam match, losing at the 2015 US Open (l. Mardy Fish), 2016 Australian Open (l. Nicolas Mahut), 2016 Roland Garros (l. Nick Kyrgios), and 2017 Wimbledon (l. Nishikori). Cecchinato fell in the final round of Roland Garros qualifying last year.
But he's put it all together this fortnight, beating Romania's Marius Copil, Marco Trungelliti of Argentina, 10th seed Pablo Carreno Busta and eighth seed David Goffin to make the quarter-final.
Djokovic also has looked close to his best, making his second quarter-final of the season after reaching the Rome semi-finals last month. But the Serbian has struggled to get going and, during the first-set changeover, received treatment on his neck. Djokovic can reach his 32nd Grand Slam semi-final – and ninth Roland Garros semi-final – and surge to second place on the all-time Open Era list.
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