Defending French Open champion Novak Djokovic has survived a gruesome upset bid by Francisco Cerundulo to advance to the quarterfinals of the sport's most prestigious clay competition.
Djokovic closed as a roughly -700 to advance to his 15th straight French Open quarterfinal.
The world's No. 1 ranked player — and all-time leader in major victories — tweaked his knee in the third set and promptly went down two sets to one.
But the greatest tennis player of all-time climbed back in a brutal fourth set in which his knee hampered him throughout. In the fifth set, Djokovic fell over twice on the weight of that faulty knee but still managed to push through for a 6-3 victory.
Odds on Djokovic fell to as long as +135 in the middle of the fourth set, when Cerundolo was up a break early in the game. Djokovic broke himself later in the game to retake his spot as the favorite in this match, a role that he would not relinquish.
The Serbian isn't the favorite to win this tournament outright, though. That honor goes to Carlos Alcaraz (+145), who beat Djokovic in the 2023 Wimbledon final to prevent him from winning all four majors last season.
Jannik Sinner sits higher on the leaderboard, too, relative to Djokovic. If Djokovic were to reach his eighth French Open final, it would be against one of Alcaraz or Sinner.
