Novak played a clean match. Literally: He made no unforced errors.

“I'm still far away from where I want to be, but I'm happy with the way I was playing,” said the former world No. 3, who will apply for a wild card to play in Paris.

The entertaining Kazakh staved off some vintage form from the former world No. 3 to reach the second round at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

Though the end result was disappointing, the 2020 US Open champion declared on his social media, "I felt like a player again."

The three-time Grand Slam champion will take the court for the first time in more than a year at next week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Marbella.

He got his first Masters 1000 win as a 16-year-old in Monte Carlo, and now his 400th as a 35-year-old at Indian Wells.

"I still have this fire in me that makes me love tennis, love to play, love to train, love to endure," the three-time major winner told L'Equipe.

"What motivates me and pushes me still is I tell myself I'm going to play—that I'm going to have fun."

“The past couple of years, the clay has made issues worse,” the 34-year-old said Sunday in Rotterdam.

From Stan the Man returning to the Fedal bromance back in action, here are the best posts from across the world of tennis.