Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates successful the lads’s singles last match of the French Open tennis event in opposition to Norway’s Casper Ruud in three units on the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday.

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Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates successful the lads’s singles last match of the French Open tennis event in opposition to Norway’s Casper Ruud in three units on the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday.

Thibault Camus/AP

PARIS — Novak Djokovic made clear for years that this was his objective. What drove him. What impressed him. The greatest titles from his sport’s greatest phases had been Djokovic’s foremost intention and now he lastly stands alone — forward of Rafael Nadal, forward of Roger Federer, forward of each man who ever has swung a racket.

If Djokovic may wait this lengthy to carry this document, he actually may await the half-hour or so it took to straighten out his strokes within the French Open last. And so, after a little bit of a shaky begin in thick, humid air and below foreboding charcoal clouds Sunday, he imposed himself. The opponent at Court Philippe Chatrier, Casper Ruud, by no means actually stood a severe probability after that.

Djokovic earned his males’s-record twenty third Grand Slam singles championship, breaking a tie with Nadal and transferring three in entrance of the retired Federer, with a 7-6 (1), 6-3, 7-5 victory over Ruud that basically was not unsure for many of its 3 hours, 13 minutes.

Djokovic, a 36-year-old from Serbia, places this one alongside the French Open titles he earned in 2016 and 2021, making him the one man with at the least three from every main occasion. He has gained 10 trophies on the Australian Open, seven at Wimbledon and three on the U.S. Open.

Djokovic is midway to a calendar-year Grand Slam

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, proper, hugs Norway’s Casper Ruud after successful their last match of the French Open tennis event on the Roland Garros stadium in Paris on Sunday.

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Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, proper, hugs Norway’s Casper Ruud after successful their last match of the French Open tennis event on the Roland Garros stadium in Paris on Sunday.

Jean-Francois Badias/AP

Also price noting: Djokovic is once more midway to a calendar-year Grand Slam — successful all 4 majors in a single season — one thing no man has achieved since Rod Laver in 1969. Djokovic got here near pulling off that feat in 2021, when he gained the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon and made all of it the way in which to the title match on the U.S. Open earlier than shedding to Daniil Medvedev.

Djokovic will resume that pursuit at Wimbledon, which begins on the grass of the All England Club on July 3.

He has now clutched the trophy at 11 of the final 20 Slams, a exceptional run made much more so when contemplating that he didn’t take part in two majors throughout that span as a result of he didn’t get vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19. Djokovic was deported from Australia in January 2021 earlier than the Australian Open, and he was not allowed to fly to the United States forward of final yr’s U.S. Open below a rule that since has been lifted.

Getting to 23 not solely units the mark for males, however it additionally lets Djokovic equal Serena Williams, who wrapped up her career last year, for probably the most by anybody within the Open period, which started in 1968. Margaret Court gained a few of her all-time document of 24 Slam trophies within the newbie period.

At 20 days previous his thirty sixth birthday, Djokovic is the oldest singles champion at Roland Garros, thought-about probably the most grueling of the majors due to the prolonged, grinding factors required by the pink clay, which is slower than the grass or onerous courts underfoot elsewhere.

Nadal’s twenty second main arrived in Paris a yr in the past, two days after he turned 36. He has been sidelined since January by a hip harm and had arthroscopic surgical procedure on June 2.

As if all of that weren’t sufficient, Djokovic’s triumph on Sunday additionally means he’ll return to No. 1 within the ATP rankings on Monday, changing Carlos Alcaraz. Djokovic already has spent extra weeks on the prime spot than any participant — man or girl — because the inception of computerized tennis rankings a half-century in the past.

It was Djokovic who eliminated Alcaraz in the semifinals on Thursday, sporting him down over two thrilling units till the 20-year-old Spaniard’s physique cramped up badly. Alcaraz continued to play, however the scores of the final two units of the four-set match advised the story: 6-1, 6-1.

This was the third Slam last up to now 5 occasions for Ruud, a 24-year-old from Norway, however he’s now 0-3. He misplaced to Nadal on the French Open a yr in the past and to Alcaraz on the U.S. Open final September.

Perhaps on account of an consciousness of all that was at stake, Djokovic, in his thirty fourth main last, was the one who obtained off to a shaky begin.

Ruud emerged to a partial ovation and well mannered applause. More people rose to their ft as a roar met Djokovic’s entrance, adopted by thunderous chants of his two-syllable nickname, “No-le! No-le! No-le!” That refrain resumed proper earlier than play started — and repeatedly over the course of the afternoon, typically to have a good time his greatest moments, typically to encourage him.

As Djokovic reeled off 12 of the final 13 factors to finish issues, dropping onto his again with limbs unfold huge on the end, the shouts of his title had been thunderous.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates successful the lads’s singles last match of the French Open tennis event in opposition to Norway’s Casper Ruud in three units, 7-6, (7-1), 6-3, 7-5, on the Roland Garros stadium in Paris on Sunday.

Thibault Camus/AP

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Thibault Camus/AP

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates successful the lads’s singles last match of the French Open tennis event in opposition to Norway’s Casper Ruud in three units, 7-6, (7-1), 6-3, 7-5, on the Roland Garros stadium in Paris on Sunday.

Thibault Camus/AP

The most well-liked technique of saluting Ruud? Drawn-out, monotone pronouuncements of his final title — “Ruuuuuuuuuud” — that sounded as if it had been booing, which, after all, it was not.

At first, Ruud appeared to do no matter he may to check Djokovic’s forehand, the weaker aspect. It paid off early, when Djokovic saved lacking that stroke — into the web, huge, lengthy — then made a special type of mistake, shanking an overhead from close to the web means past the other baseline to get damaged and path 2-0.

For no matter cause, that shot all the time has been Djokovic’s “bête noire,” and he missed one other overhead later within the set.

Soon, Ruud led 4-1, thanks partly to Djokovic’s troubles. By then, Djokovic gathered 13 unforced errors, whereas Ruud made simply 4.

And then all the pieces modified.

After ending the primary set with 18 unforced errors, Djokovic recalibrated himself, with merely 14 over the past two units mixed.

Then it was Ruud’s flip to flub an overhead, rocking again and depositing his into the web to finish a 29-stroke level. Djokovic’s first service break made it 4-3, and he shook his proper fist.

They went to a tiebreaker, actually Djokovic’s dominion. When the import rises, together with the stress, he merely excels. Has perpetually, it appears.

During the first-to-7 section, Djokovic contributed 4 winners and 0 unforced errors.

That made his profession mark in tiebreakers 308-162, a successful proportion of .655. In 2023, he is 15-4, together with 6-0 in Paris — there have been 55 factors performed throughout that half-dozen, and Djokovic’s sum complete of unforced errors was zero.

Read that once more: zero.

That set alone lasted 1 hour, 21 minutes, chock filled with prolonged exchanges, the type of factors about which total tales might be written. There had been people who lasted 20, 25, 29 strokes. One was gained by Ruud with the assistance of a back-to-the-net, between-the-legs shot. On one other, Djokovic tumbled behind the baseline, smudging his pink shirt, blue shorts and pores and skin with the rust-colored clay.

Djokovic’s scrambling and stretching and bending and twisting on protection exhibits up on the scoreboard, for certain. But all the lengthy factors additionally sap a foe’s power and can.

Helps as nicely, perhaps, that Djokovic is aware of all of the little ins and outs. He complained to chair umpire Damien Dumusois about how a lot time was being allotted for changeovers — slightly additional relaxation by no means damage anybody, proper? Djokovic took the 25-second serve clock down till it expired and infrequently past that, a lot in order that one voice from the seats exclaimed, “Serve it!” And Dumusois warned him for the time-taking within the third set.

When he broke Ruud to guide 3-0 within the second set, his powers now on full show, Djokovic jabbed his proper index finger in opposition to his temple time and again and over. He wheeled to face his close by field within the stands, the place the friends included his coach, Goran Ivanisevic; his spouse and two youngsters; his agent; and even seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady.

The lately retired Brady is broadly seen because the NFL’s “Greatest of All-Time” — or “GOAT,” for brief — and there was a debate within the tennis world for fairly a while over which amongst Djokovic, Nadal or Federer deserves that sobriquet.

If the barometer is Grand Slam championships, nobody can argue in opposition to Djokovic’s standing in the intervening time.