Novak Djokovic will play in Geneva a few days before the French Open
The Swiss tournament granted an invitation to the number one, who wants to get to Paris in better shape. Murray or Hanfmann will be his first rival.
Novak Djokovic will return to competition one last time before the start of the French Open. He will feature in the Geneva Open next week even though the Serb usually prefers to get ready with enough time for the Grand Slam tournaments.
Djokovic will participate in the Gonet Ginebra Open, which will take place in the Swiss city from May 19 to 25, as announced by the tournament on social media.
The world No. 1 will compete with one of the three invitations granted by the event’s organization (the other two were for the British Andy Murray and the Canadian Denis Shapovalov). He will be the first seed and won’t have to play in the first round so he will play on Tuesday or Wednesday against the winner of the match between Murray and the German Yannick Hanfmann.
Djokovic could face Tallon Griekspoor in the quarterfinals and Taylor Fritz in the semifinals, before a hypothetical final against Casper Ruud, the tournament’s second favorite.
Djokovic wants to find his best form ahead of the French Open
Djokovic will try to reverse a gray 2024 season in which he hasn’t won any title yet after being eliminated in the Australian Open semifinals. He lost to Jannik Sinner in the first major of the calendar and tasted defeat against Luca Nardi at Indian Wells and Alejandro Tabilo in Rome.
It’s not the first time Djokovic has played a tournament just before the French Open. He did it in 2021 when he won the ATP 250 event in Belgrade, and two weeks later, he lifted the Musketeers trophy at the Philippe Chatrier court, after coming back in the final against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The Belgrade tournament didn’t have the opposition level this year’s Geneva Open will have, as, besides the players already mentioned, Ben Shelton and the clay-court specialists Sebastián Baez and Roberto Carballes, among others, will also be present. In 2017, Novak won the Eastbourne tournament days before playing in Wimbledon, where he was eliminated in the quarterfinals, after suffering an injury.