John McEnroe acknowledged that the Serbian had captured his imagination following Novak Djokovic’s second consecutive comeback from a two-set deficit to one set down on the road to the fourth French Open title.

Only 36 hours after defeating Lorenzo Musetti in a five-set battle on Sunday morning, Djokovic returned to the court and replicated the victory in a lengthy match against Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.

It was all the more remarkable considering that he had to spend most of the match recovering from a knee injury he had sustained early in the second set.

McEnroe expressed his thoughts and said: “I can’t recall seeing anything like it, honestly. At his age, at any age, he should continue doing what he does at this level and find a way. I’ve been involved in tennis for 50 years, I played 15 years on the tour, I’ve been doing this, commentating, for the last 30 years and I still am mesmerised and amazed that this guy can pull this off at this point.”

He added: “We were talking earlier in the match about how the last time he’d won back-to-back five-set matches was 12 years ago—he was 25 years old. He won two matches in Australia and beat Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray in two epic five-setters; yet, at 37, how does this guy still find a way to pull these matches out? He played until 3 am, recovered, and got down two sets to one and 4-2. He somehow won that, got up 2-0 in the fifth, blew that, and still won. It’s truly amazing.”

Djokovic at the French Open, ranking, and results in 2024

Currently ranked no.1, Novak has a compiled 18-6 win-loss record in 2024. Djokovic is playing at the moment at the French Open where he beat the world no.142 Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-4 7-6³ 6-4, the world no.63 Roberto Carballes Baena 6-4 6-1 6-2, the world no.30 Lorenzo Musetti 7-5 6-7⁶ 2-6 6-3 6-0 and the world no.27 Francisco Cerundolo 6-1 5-7 3-6 7-5 6-3.

Djokovic is scheduled to compete next at the Wimbledon (Wimbledon). He will start the tournament from the main draw that will commence on the 1st of July.