10 Things to Know, Day 5: Djokovic going for 70th win at Roland Garros

Trivia: Which player playing on either Chatrier or Lenglen today says in his ATP bio that his dream job is “lying on a beach”?

The world No. 1 and the American No. 1 are both in action as the second round wraps up. Novak Djokovic and Sofia Kenin, who are also the 2020 Australian Open champions, both play on Chatrier today.

Djokovic is going for his 70th career win at Roland Garros. He has 69 going into his second-round match, trailing only two men all-time: Roger Federer, who has 70, and Rafael Nadal, who has 95.

Djokovic’s opponent, Ricardas Berankis, is 0-10 against Top 20 players at majors. Beating the world No. 1 today will be a tall order—he’s had five Top 20 wins at regular tour events, but none at a major.

While Djokovic was reaching his first major final at the 2007 US Open, Berankis was winning the junior title. Djokovic is only three years older than Berankis, but he reached the first of his now 26 major finals in New York that year. Berankis beat Jerzy Janowicz to win the junior title there.

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Every time Jelena Ostapenko's made it past the first round at Roland Garros, she's won the title. Okay, she’s only made it past the first round once before here, in 2017, but when she did, she didn’t stop until she had the trophy. She fell first round in her other three previous appearances here in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

The Latvian plays Karolina Pliskova first up on Chatrier. She’s won two of her last three meetings with the Czech.

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ opponent is one of the most experienced clay-courters around. Not only has Pablo Cuevas won all six of his career ATP titles on clay, but all four of his third-round appearances at majors have come at this major—he also has a rare win over Nadal on clay, at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The Uruguayan, a former Top 20 player, is 0-13 against Top 25 players at majors, though.

It’s already been a record-setting week for the Italian men. Jannik Sinner, Marco Cecchinato, Lorenzo Sonego and Stefano Travaglia all won their second-round matches on Wednesday, which is already the record for most Italian men into the third round of ANY major in the Open Era. Matteo Berrettini can make it five on Thursday.

Elena Rybakina’s trying to become the first woman to reach 30 wins this year. The Kazakh already leads the women’s tour with 29 wins going into her match against Fiona Ferro today. Djokovic leads the men’s tour in 2020 with 32 wins coming into today.

Kenin lost her only previous meeting against her opponent today. Ana Bogdan beat Kenin in the qualies of Montreal in 2018, but Kenin was nowhere near the player she is now (she was No. 68 then).

Steffi Graf completed the only Calendar-Year Golden Slam on this day 32 years ago. On October 1, 1988—just days after future Grand Slam champions Juan Martin Del Potro and Marin Cilic were born—the German beat Gabriela Sabatini in the gold medal match at the Seoul Olympics to complete the (as of now) once-in-history feat.

Yesterday’s Trivia: The players (scheduled to play) on the three main show courts on Wednesday had 50 Majors between them (Serena Williams-23, Nadal-19, Stan Wawrinka-3, Simona Halep-2, Victoria Azarenka-2 and Dominic Thiem-1).