PARIS: Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, two men expected to go far at the French Open, make their 2023 Roland Garros debuts on Monday against a pair of opponents who never have played a Grand Slam match.
Alcaraz, a 20-year-old from Spain ranked No. 1 who won the US Open in September, faces Flavio Cobolli, an Italian who is ranked 159th.
Djokovic, who won two of his 22 major championships in Paris, takes on Aleksander Kovacevic, an American ranked 114th. Asked to compare the Alcaraz of today to the Alcaraz of a year ago, his coach, 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, began by saying: “As a person, I would say he’s more mature.” And then Ferrero added: “As a player, I think he grows up, like, super fast on the court.
He can, let’s say, read the matches a little bit better.” Djokovic begins his bid to break the men’s record he currently shares with Rafael Nadal by earning Grand Slam trophy No.