Paris (AFP)

Novak Djokovic chained four laps at Roland Garros as a steamroller, but pain, of which he is a secret, complicated his task in the quarter-finals against Pablo Carreno.

Will he be 100% against Stefanos Tsitsipas, euphoric, Friday in half?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC

(SRB, world No. 1, 33 years old, 17 Grand Slam titles including Roland-Garros 2016)

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The results: Djokovic has had a phenomenal year: apart from his disqualification in the round of 16 of the US Open for a gesture of humor, he has not lost a single game of the season.

Titled for the 8th time at the Australian Open, then winner of the Masters 1000 of Cincinnati (hard) and Rome (clay), he has 36 victories this year.

In addition, he only lost one set to reach the semi-finals, the first of his quarter-final against Carreno.

He is also the player who won the most matches at Roland Garros (73) behind Rafael Nadal (98).

The Game: Considered the strongest player on hard, he is also one of the best on earth.

In addition to his title at Roland Garros in 2016, he has now reached the last four at the French Open ten times, and only Nadal has done better (13).

In addition, this year, in the general opinion it is favored by the conditions in which the tournament is being played and which make the balls -Wilson replaced Babolat- more clumsy.

"When the ball is alive, Rafael manages to overflow it, but it will be more difficult," told AFP the uncle and former coach of the king of Roland Garros, Toni Nadal, in anticipation of a possible final between the two ogres.

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Physical condition: He appeared very diminished on Wednesday at the start of his quarter-final.

With a huge patch stuck to the back of his neck, Djokovic massaged himself a lot and even hit the inside of the left elbow in the early games, bringing out bad memories.

He had withdrawn from the doubles tournament in Cincinnati in August because of neck pain.

He had surgery on his right elbow in early 2018 and dropped out in the 8th of the 2019 US Open due to pain in his left shoulder.

"I had neck and shoulder problems. That's all I'll say," he said Wednesday night.

Carreno was not convinced: "I don't know if it was real pain or if it was psychological," said the Spaniard.

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS

(GRE, world No.6, 22 years old, 1st semi-final at Roland-Garros)

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The mind: Winner of the Masters at the end of the year in 2019, the Greek reached the last four of a Major for the 2nd time after the Australian Open last year.

“I think I learned from my first. I'm looking for something huge,” he commented.

After losing the first two sets of his first match of the tournament, he didn't lose a single one until the semi-finals.

The game: "We can only love the way he plays (...) he will win a Major very soon," John McEnroe commented on Eurosport.

Powerful from the baseline, skilful on the fly, he can do anything.

Russian Andrey Rublev can attest to this: he only withstood the tornado set in the quarter-finals.

"After the first set he started to play really, really well," he said.

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The opponent: "The important thing is not so much that Novak had a pain in the neck, it is that he got out of it. He is still in the race", summed up McEnroe, while the Serbian won his last two confrontations against Tsitsipas who nevertheless won twice in five duels.

The physique: Good for morale, the victory in the first round was grueling.

Not to mention that he went to the final in Hamburg just before Roland Garros.

“It's a risk,” McEnroe said.

© 2020 AFP