It is just the second time Djokovic has ever lost from two sets up, with the only previous occasion coming here 16 years ago against Jurgen Melzer.<\/p>\n
The Serbian has done a remarkable job at defying the sands of time but he could not finish off the irrepressible Fonseca, who looked utterly stunned as he celebrated reaching the fourth round of a slam for the first time.<\/p>\n
Asked how he kept believing, Fonseca said: “I actually didn\u2019t. I just played, I just enjoyed being on court, and what a match it was. What an idol we have and it was a pleasure just stepping on court against him.”<\/p>\n
Djokovic turned to all sides of Court Philippe Chatrier as he walked off and he offered no guarantees he will be back next year, saying only, “I don’t know”, when he was asked about prospect.<\/p>\n
He admitted he “ran out of gas” after struggling with injury over the last two months but was full of praise for his opponent.<\/p>\n
“Hats off,” said the former world number one. “He just played lights-out tennis. Every time there was a decisive moment, he went for it.<\/p>\n
“The kind of level of tennis we\u2019ve seen him play created a lot of hype around him, and I think we have all seen today why there is hype around him.”<\/p>\n
![\"PARIS,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/00247332-614.jpg\"\/)
\nNovak Djokovic thanks the crowd after his defeat<\/p>\n
Djokovic shrugged off any talk of a missed opportunity following Sinner\u2019s defeat, saying: “I don\u2019t care. I\u2019ll stop you right there. No. Just lost third round. Let\u2019s just talk about something else.”<\/p>\n
It was the first career meeting between Djokovic and the player 20 years his junior.<\/p>\n
The rise this year of Spain\u2019s Rafael Jodar has taken some of the attention off the young Brazilian, who was in tears after fighting back from two sets down to beat Dino Prizmic in the previous round.<\/p>\n
Fonseca\u2019s bold shot selection has earned him a legion of fans but winning best-of-five set matches is about far more than the spectacular.<\/p>\n
He found a foothold in the match from 5-1 down in the first set but the contest appeared to be heading Djokovic\u2019s way when he opened up a two-set lead.<\/p>\n
However, Fonseca moved ahead early in the third and Djokovic began shaking out his right wrist and looking affected by the hot, humid conditions.<\/p>\n
Had the Serbian taken one of two break points at 4-4 in the fourth set, victory may well have been his but Fonseca stayed true to his attacking philosophy to save them and seized his chance in the 11th game.<\/p>\n
Djokovic gave a weary look to the heavens as Fonseca pushed the contest to a fifth, and he vomited at the side of the court after the first game of the decider.<\/p>\n
The great champion looked spent yet somehow he kept fighting, but this was Fonseca\u2019s moment and he finished off the victory of his life with three aces in a row.<\/p>\n
On Court Simonne Mathieu, Jodar continued his rapid ascent as he fought back from two sets to one down to beat American Alex Michelsen 7-6 (2) 6-7 (5) 4-6 6-3 6-3.<\/p>\n
Ranked outside the top 150 at the start of the season, the teenager arrived in Paris as the 27th seed and, following Sinner\u2019s defeat, was remarkably installed as the second favourite in only his second grand slam.<\/p>\n
Shouts of ‘Vamos Rafa\u2019 rang around Roland Garros once more two years after Rafael Nadal\u2019s final match on the Paris clay, with Spanish fans blessed by another generational talent in the absence of the injured Carlos Alcaraz.<\/p>\n
Jodar celebrated in understated fashion and said: “My mentality is to recover well for my next match. It will be another tough match, so I have to get ready for it, try to give my best level, but (above) all focus on the next match and not think farther than the next match.”<\/p>\n
He next takes on veteran compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta, who is through to the last 16 at a slam for the first time in five years.<\/p>\n
Czech Jakub Mensik, who dramatically collapsed at the end of a five-set second-round victory and branded the conditions “insane”, looked to be feeling the effects still when he won only five points in the first set against Alex De Minaur.<\/p>\n
But he recovered impressively to triumph 0-6 6-2 6-2 6-3 as yet another top-10 seed exited the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new grand slam champion will be crowned at the French Open after teenager Joao Fonseca came of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-473777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}