“Everything is possible,” Novak Djokovic likes to say.
He said it again on Sunday at his post-match press conference at Roland Garros. Which makes sense, because only someone who believes that everything is possible could have pulled off what he pulled off over the last three days.
In the semifinals, Djokovic handed Rafael Nadal his third loss in 108 matches in Paris; less than 48 hours later, he came back from two sets to love down to beat a player 12 years his junior, Stefanos Tsitsipas. Both matches lasted four hours and 11 minutes. Djokovic has had other amazing final weekends at Grand Slams in the past, including back-to-back wins over Nadal and Roger Federer in New York, and back-to-back epics against Andy Murray and Nadal in Melbourne. But this one may take the cake, because it came at the Slam where he has had, relatively speaking, his least success.
“I couldn’t be happier and more satisfied with this kind of scenario in the last 48 hours,” Djokovic said. “Probably ranks at the top three all-time achievements and experiences that I had in my professional tennis career.”