Follow us on Google Discover Novak Djokovic has 24 Grand Slam titles to his name, and the four major tournaments have been where he’s played his best tennis over the years.
When it comes to the major that has proved least successful for Djokovic, it’s the French Open, with the Serbian winning just three times at Roland Garros.
In 2025, Jannik Sinner beat Djokovic at the clay-court Grand Slam and losing to the player who was the world number one at the time is no mean feat.
However, it hasn’t always been that way and in 2018, Djokovic found himself on the wrong end of one of the biggest shocks of his career at the Paris-based Grand Slam.
Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty ImagesMarco Cecchinato stunned Novak Djokovic in 2018
Cecchinato was a bit of a slow burner on the ATP Tour, and it took him a long time to adapt from the Challenger circuit onto the main tour.
Cecchinato entered four Grand Slam events prior to his run to the semifinal in 2018, without winning a single match, making this particular run all the more incredible.
Cecchinato has defeated Marius Copil, Marco Trungelliti, Pablo Carreno Busta and David Goffin to set up the last eight clash with Djokovic.
At this point in Djokovic’s career, he had claimed one French Open title, winning in 2016 and also had 11 other Grand Slam titles to his name.
Cecchinato didn’t just stun Djokovic but he absolutely thrashed him in four sets, to leave the tennis world shocked and have Rafael Nadal cruising towards another Roland Garros crown.
However, the time in the sun didn’t last long for Cecchinato…
What happened to Marco Cecchinato’s career
In truth, it was hard for him to live up to this performance, and this was as good as it got for Cecchinato on the professional tour.
Right now, the Italian is still scratching around on the Challenger circuit and has a world ranking of number 380 with the player now 33-years-old.
Remarkably, Cecchinato entered the other three Grand Slam events a combined 17 times and never managed to get past the first round at any of them.
Cecchinato did get to round three of the French Open on two other occasions, but his world ranking started to slip badly after reaching a summit of number 16 in 2019.
The right-handed player has made around $5 million out of playing tennis, but given that he’s proved a bit of a one-hit wonder with this win over Djokovic, Cecchinato might look back at his playing career with a tinge of regret.