It is only the second time in his Grand Slam career that Djokovic has lost a match after winning the first two sets (the other also coming at the French Open against Jurgen Melzer in 2010).<\/p>\n
Djokovic said that he \u201dran out gas\u201d<\/a> towards the end of a physical contest but was \u201dhappy\u201d with his level.<\/p>\n It was only Djokovic\u2019s fourth match since the middle of March because he missed most of the clay season due to a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n “An incredible display of fighting spirit from Novak at 39 years of age against a challenger who is 20 years his junior,\u201d his former coach Becker told TNT Sports.<\/p>\n \u201dJoao is a great player and a great character too. He showed respect for Novak and even went so far as to congratulate his mother. We\u2019re going to be hearing a lot more from him.”<\/p>\n Becker added: “Novak didn\u2019t know before the tournament whether he was match fit. Since today, at the very latest, we know that he is.\u00a0<\/p>\n Djokovic says he ‘ran out of gas’ against ‘lights-out’ Fonseca<\/p>\n Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n \u201dWimbledon isn\u2019t quite as physically demanding. That\u2019s his next big goal and, after his performances this week, he has every chance of winning the title there.”<\/p>\n Djokovic is a seven-time winner of Wimbledon, which starts on June 29.<\/p>\n He was beaten in the semi-finals of the grass Grand Slam last year by Jannik Sinner and lost in the final to Carlos Alcaraz in his previous two appearances.<\/p>\n Courier said: “Novak played great and if he can take this level that he played today into the All England Club he will be extraordinarily tough to beat.”<\/p>\n The 39-year-old was pushed to four sets in his opening two matches at the French Open and was then taken all the way by Fonseca.<\/p>\n He led by a break in the fifth set but couldn\u2019t close it out against the hard-hitting Brazilian.<\/p>\n \u201dI think I was playing good tennis, really good level,\u201d he said afterwards.<\/p>\n \u201dConsidering I was injured for three months and trying to come back and then going pretty much straight into a Grand Slam on this surface that is very demanding and, for me, takes more time to get used to, to kind of find my groove.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201dTaking everything in consideration and all the circumstances, I think the level was really good. I was happy with my level. Of course, right now being disappointed right off the court, losing, being close to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n Add TNT Sports as a preferred source here<\/a> to enjoy more content like this.Stream every court from the 2026 French Open exclusively live on TNT Sports and HBO Max<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘I don’t care’ – Djokovic shuts down Sinner, Alcaraz question after loss Video credit: TNT Sports Djokovic let…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[183549,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-613255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-roland-garros-mens-singles-2026","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"picture\"](\"https:\/\/imgresizer.tntsports.io\/unsafe\/1200x0\/filters:format(jpeg)\/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io\/2026\/05\/29\/image-27564e33-a1d3-4e1b-a8e7-a919ff752d37-85-2560-1440.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n