Novak Djokovic's French Open opponent brands Serb 'GOAT' despite Roger Federer comment

Novak Djokovic will face Aljaz Bedene in the third round of the French Open on Friday and may already have the edge over the Slovenian after Bedene conceded that the world No 1 would end his career as the greatest of all time. The world No 195 will be retiring at the end of the season, and tipped Djokovic for greatness despite siding with Roger Federer in one comment.

Djokovic's next opponent in his quest to defend his French Open title is Bedene, a former world No 43 who briefly represented Great Britain from 2015 to 2017. The Serb leads their head-to-head 3-0, including a meeting in Paris back in 2016, and Bedene has already downplayed his chances in the match after branding Djokovic the "GOAT".

"Novak is Novak, he is an animal on the field and it will normally be much harder," he told SportKlub ahead of their fourth meeting. "I hope to be physically okay. If so, I have to be aggressive and at the same time make as few mistakes as possible. Not many gifts will come from him. We played a few times, once I was close to winning the set, of course he is a big favourite. I will enjoy, so we will see."

And the 32-year-old also claimed that Djokovic was now part of a two-horse race with Rafael Nadal, despite branding Federer the best at tennis. "I think there are only two of them in the race now. Okay, Federer plays tennis the best, that's for sure, but I believe that Nole will be the player with the most other slams and masters. In the end, he will be the one - GOAT," he declared.

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