PARIS: Novak Djokovic shut down three questions during Friday evening’s post-match press conference at Roland Garros. The answers were brief, but revealing in what they refused to say.Will we see you back at Roland Garros next year? DJOKOVIC: I don’t know. Would it be okay if that was your last match? DJOKOVIC: I don’t know. With Carlos sidelined and Jannik losing, did your mind begin to think about the rest…DJOKOVIC: I don’t care. I’ll stop you right there. The 24-time Grand Slam champion had little appetite for the questions. They were direct and uncomfortable, much like the challenge he had faced on court in the French Open third-round against the 19-year-old Joao Fonseca. For long stretches Djokovic appeared in control, leading by two sets and later holding a 3-1 advantage in the deciding fifth set. Even deep in the match, in the fourth set, he seemed poised to regain command, 4-3 and holding two break points at 15-40. Two of those questions he had answered patiently 12 months ago after his French Open semi-final loss to Jannik Sinner. He talked about the demands of the surface and how at this stage in his career it perhaps asked for more than he could give.But on Friday night, after being edged out by the teenager, Djokovic was in no mood to revisit them.This is just the second time he has lost a match from two sets up. His only previous defeat was in the 2010 Roland Garros quarter-finals, when he lost to Jurgen Melzer. In the fifth hour of a Grand Slam match, body and mind are rarely separate forces. As Djokovic’s legs grew heavier, the certainty that had underpinned his tennis began to disappear. For all the questions about the durability of a 39-year-old body, Friday’s defeat to Fonseca felt like a match lost in the mind as much as the muscles. That was the wound Djokovic carried into his post-match press conference.Fonseca, who had 11 aces in the match, five of them in the fifth set, said, “When I won the fourth set, I was already tired. The fifth set was all heart. I couldn’t even think. I was just trying to go.” Both men were tired, even so, only one of them was 39.Djokovic, playing only his fourth tournament of the year, said, “Considering I was injured for three months and trying to come back, going pretty much straight into a Grand Slam on this surface that is very demanding and, for me, takes more time to find my groove, my level was really good.” “End of the fourth was my best chance, 4-3, 15-40. He just played really good points. He was attacking, big serves,” he said. “When I look back at the important moments, could I have done something different? You know, you can always say, yes, but you just have to say, well done, and congratulate him.”“Maybe my only fault was at 3-1 in the fifth and serving and when I dropped the serve,” Djokovic rued. That match, five of 16 break points converted, three more points won overall yet three fewer games on the scoreboard, does not quite add up. And yet it may still be reason enough to believe he will return to Roland Garros, not to settle a score, but to set one straight.
