Novak Djokovic has reacted to beating “good friend” Filip Misolic in his first night session match of the 2025 French Open.
The 24-time major champion downed Misolic, a 153rd-ranked Austrian qualifier, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the third round on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
After his second round win against Corentin Moutet, Djokovic had expressed his preference to not play on Saturday night in the next round so he could watch the Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan.
“It’s going to be PSG that I will support. I will definitely watch it if I’m not playing [the] night session,” the Serbian said.
The 38-year-old added with a smile: “Yeah, that will be nice. FYI, Roland Garros schedule…”
However, Djokovic’s request was not granted and his night session win took place at the same time as PSG’s 5-0 demolition of Inter.
After his victory, Djokovic spoke about the scheduling: “I don’t know if it was good for me to get this scheduled slot, because it was interesting.
“The crowd was really following the game, and I could hear when they scored, and it was way too many times that they were celebrating.
“I was like, ‘Wow, I mean, there’s a lot of goals from Paris, I mean, what’s going on?’ So now I heard it’s 5-0, so it’s quite a result, to be honest.”
“But yeah, I mean, night sessions are always different, you know, they’re always louder, the people are always more excited. Everything is very loud and different from the day session.
“I knew that I’m going to have to be scheduled once to play at night, and it’s okay. It’s fine, you know, I mean, I would be watching football for sure. Right now, we are in Paris. They won it for the first time, so I don’t know how we’re gonna all go back to our hotels.
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“It’s going to be quite a journey, quite an adventure, but I think we are in for a long celebration and probably not much sleep tonight. So it’s a fun night to be in Paris, I guess.”
Djokovic, who is yet to drop a set in Paris, added: “On my side, I think there’s always something to improve, something to get better at, but overall, I have to be pleased with the level of tennis so far.”
The world No 6 also discussed the challenge of playing night session matches in his on-court interview.
“Well, it was my first night session this year. Night session is different,” Djokovic said.
“Obviously, waiting all day to play isn’t easy, because there’s anticipation, you’re very tense, you have to prepare for the match.
“Last year, I played a few night sessions, an incredible one against [Lorenzo] Musetti, which finished at 3 o’clock in the morning. Tonight, I was just hoping that it wouldn’t finish after 3am.
“There are always a lot of expectations, but I think I played solidly in the right moments over the three sets.
“Filip is a player who had nothing to lose this evening. He’s a good friend, we have practised a lot together. He plays for Austria, but he is from Croatia, his family, so we speak the same language.
“It’s great for him, I’m pleased he’s playing well. Tonight, he deserves a huge round of applause and respect for how he played.”
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