'Fired up' Novak Djokovic hailed by Tim Henman and Mats Wilander after 'brutal' French Open win

A «fired up» Novak Djokovic was hailed by Tim Henman and Mats Wilander following the Serbian's «brutal» French Open win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Djokovic was pushed all the way by the Spaniard in a pulsating first two sets that both went to tie-breaks, and that saw the match duration at nearly three hours.

Ad Thereafter there were calmer waters for the Serbian, who came through the third set to take his place in the fourth round with a 7-6(4) 7-6(5) 6-2 victory. Roland-Garros'That helps him, he gets angrier!' – Henman and Wilander react to crowd booing Djokovic4 HOURS AGO Wilander and Henman felt that the booing the French crowd handed out to Djokovic when he took a medical timeout at the end of the second set contributed to the way the encounter unravelled.

Three-time Roland-Garros champion Wilander, speaking on Eurosport's The Cube, said: «If the people that are here want to see a close match or they boo, it’s only because they want to see more tennis, they’re doing [Novak] a favour, because he gets more fired up when they’re against him and supporting the other guy. »It’s understandable they want Davidovich Fokina to win a set because they want to see Novak play more.

«I think that if they really want Novak to not play well and make it close, they shouldn’t boo him because that helps him, because he gets angrier. »He’ll find a reason to get upset or angry in a positive way whatever it is, and [the crowd] is just making it easier for him because it’s so easy to do it against the crowd." Norrie thrashed by Musetti at French Open as final Brit exits singles 'Do you want me to p*** on the floor?' — Kokkinakis argues with umpire Henman concurred, judging the 22-time major champion to have acted within the rules