Novak Djokovic suddenly looks Slam-ready | Roland Garros Wrap, Day 3

This was not a day of surprises at Roland Garros. Novak Djokovic, Coco Gauff, Alexander Zverev, Jessica Pegula, Jack Draper: all these Top 10 seeds advanced with hardly a hiccup. Even the most compelling early upset, Cam Norrie’s five-set reverse comeback win over Daniil Medvedev, was hardly a shock, considering the Russian’s oft-expressed aversion to clay.

As always, though, there were stories and results of interest: Here’s a look at three matches that you can stream on the Tennis Channel app. One features a slump-ending triumph; one has a legend defying rumors of his demise; and one shows us a gradually improving American getting what may be her most important win yet.

Norrie, happy to be “the underdog again,” beats Medvedev in a slump-snapping marathon

“I think it just comes down to enjoying the sport,” Norrie said on Tuesday, when he was asked how he has managed to stay positive, even as his long-running rankings decline has dragged on into its second year. A Top 10 player in 2022, the Brit nearly fell into triple digits earlier this season, and came to Paris a still-stunningly low 81.

Enjoyment is a theme we’ve heard from other players of late, most prominently Carlos Alcaraz. The Spaniard has talked this spring about letting thoughts of rankings and results make him nervous. In Monte Carlo, he said he shrugged all of that off and just tried to enjoy playing the way he likes to play. His titles in Monte Carlo and Rome speak for themselves.

Norrie says he had a similar experience around the same time, and came to the same conclusion. As with Alcaraz, the catalyst was a first-round loss in Miami.

“I really took a time for myself to analyze my career, analyze what’s going on,” Norrie said. “I think it was just more too much expectation. I think now I’m just enjoying the tennis.

“Just want to be who I am and react how I want to act and be myself…You’re the underdog again, finally. You can go and play.”

Still, Norrie likely didn’t enjoy seeing Medvedev across from his name in the first round. The Russian was 4-0 against him before today, and he looked sure to make it 5-0 when he came back from two sets down to take a 5-3 lead in the fifth set.

But Medvedev, aside from playing on his least-favorite surface, has been in his own slump this season. He’s fallen out of the Top 10 for the first time since 2018. At the Australian Open, he lost in the second round to Learner Tien after dropping the first two sets, winning the next two, and serving for the match in the fifth. This defeat would prove eerily similar.

Serving for the match at 5-4 in the fifth, Medvedev couldn’t make a shot. He tried and missed an inexplicable dropper to go down 0-15. He overhit a forehand into the net for 0-30. He hit a forehand long for 0-40. And he sent a backhand long on break point.

If there’s a lesson to those misses, it’s that Medvedev struggles to attack when he’s nervous. He’s a natural defender and counter-puncher, which means that grabbing the initiative and creating pace takes him slightly out of his comfort zone, and it showed at that clutch moment.

Medvedev, who has a history of early losses in Paris, sounded unfazed.

“It’s just tennis,” he said of his losses to Tien and Norrie. “The career is long, so some matches I won like this. I wouldn’t think too much about it, but it’s unfortunate situation in both matches.”

Could Medvedev profit from taking a step back and trying to appreciate playing for its own sake, the way Norrie and Alcaraz say they have? Getting off clay sounds like a good way to start.