Novak Djokovic quiets French crowd, beats Corentin Moutet at Roland Garros

Novak Djokovic continued his spring renaissance at Rokand Garros on Thursday, the three-time champion defeating French favorite Corentin Moutet, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (1).

The former world No. 1 has struggled for consistency for much of the 2025 season but found a new gear by winning his 100th career ATP title at the Gonet Geneva Open last week, and now takes a six-match win streak into the third round after a three-hour, five-minute victory on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

"I ended out the match well, moving well, playing a great tiebreak," Djokovic said in his post-match press conference. "Obviously atmosphere was electric, especially in that third set. He was close to win it, so the crowd got involved.

"And it was, yeah, not much fun for me. Of course it's never easy, but I try to stay calm and do what I need to do, and I think I have done that in a really good way."

Djokovic made a bright start to the year when he partnered rival-turned-coach Andy Murray and reached the Australian Open semifinals, defeating Carlos Alcaraz in an entertaining four-set quarterfinal. But a muscle tear ultimately forced him to retire from the semifinals and led to early losses in Doha and Indian Wells. Though he reached the Miami Open final, a stye further stymied his quest for a 100th title and he lost to an in-form Jakub Mensik.

The clay swing initially yielded further frustration for the 24-time Grand Slam champion, who took opening-round losses in both Monte Carlo and Madrid, but Djokovic made the most of a late decision to enter an ATP 250 in Geneva, where he avenged his Madird loss to Matteo Arnaldi and survived a third-set tiebreaker to achieve his milestone title count against Hubert Hurkacz in the final.

His Roland Garros campaign has been vintage Djokovic, who is seeded No. 6 but is looking capable of another deep run in his 21st main-draw appearance in Paris. The Serb enjoyed a straightforward win over American Mackenzie McDonald in the first round and quickly found a similar groove against Moutet, a French lefty who reached the fourth round on the terre battue in 2024.

Though Moutet drew Djokovic into an exchange of breaks, his flashy style proved limited against a solid Djokovic, who broke serve three more times to take a two-set lead.

Moutet made the first move in the third set, breaking Djokovic for a 4-2 lead, and though Djokovic battled back to 5-5, Moutet kept pressing on return, earning a set point as the match ticked towards the three-hour mark.

"I always felt like in the past that Suzanne Lenglen get very loud," Djokovic observed. "I think also because the fact that you're experiencing the match from up close gets you involved even more.

"I feel like there is even more, I guess, younger people, more children. That's what I noticed. You know, so it was fun. Look, I haven't played in Suzanne Lenglen too many times in the last whatever years, so it was good to experience this."

With the French crowd eager for more tennis, Djokovic collected himself to force a tiebreaker and nab the first two mini-breaks of the Sudden Death.

Two points from victory at the change of ends, Djokovic put himself on the brink when Moutet missed a forehand return. A foray to net and a clean smash got Djokovic into the third round without losing a set.

Awaiting him there will be either No. 27 seed Denis Shapovalov or Austrian qualifier Filip Misolic.