Novak Djokovic drops fewest games in French Open first round since his debut in 2005

Novak Djokovic seems to be a man on a mission at Roland Garros. The World No. 1 made short work of Yoshihito Nishioka in his tournament opener on Monday, dropping only four games. This marked the fewest games he has lost in the first round of the tournament since 2005, when he dropped dropping three games on his Roland Garros debut against Robby Ginepri.

Djokovic took some time to get going against Nishioka, saving three break points in a 10-minute opening game. However, he soon found his mojo, taking the opener for the loss of three games. The next two sets were one-way traffic as the defending champion dropped just one game to sail into the second round.

Apart from his struggles in the opening game, the only blip in Djokovic's performance was his failure to serve out the second set at 5-0. Nevertheless, he made amends, breaking his opponent right back and not dropping another game for the remainder of the match.

A day after celebrating his 35th birthday, Djokovic improved to 18-0 in first-round matches at Roland Garros, going level with 13-time champion Rafael Nadal for most wins without a single loss.

---

"I'm happy to be back, Roland Garros is one of the biggest tournaments in the world" - Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic at the 2022 French Open - Day Two

Novak Djokovic was pleased with his performance at Philippe-Chatrier on Monday night. After a few struggles early on, the 35-year-old had too much in his arsenal for the diminutive Nishioka. After the match, Djokovic said he was very pleased with his performance.

"Have to be pleased with the start (to the tournament). Beginning of the match, until I really got used to and adapted to his game, it was difficult to go through him. He's very quick, one of the quickest players on the tour," he said.

Assessing the conditions on offer, the Serb said that the ball didn't bounce much. However, he found "the right serves at the right time" to prevent the Japanese from making inroads.

"The conditions (were) quite slow. The ball was not bouncing, and it was just difficult to penetrate him. So the first set was very close, but I managed to find the right serves at the right time. That helped," Djokovic said.

Coming off a title win in Rome a week ago, Djokovic said that he has been playing well on clay for a while and was happy to be back at Roland Garros, where he won the title last year.

"I have been feeling very well on clay in the last three, four weeks, of course," he said. "Excited to bring out intensity on the court and compete with the guys. I'm happy to be back. Roland Garros is one of the biggest tournaments in the world, and the memories from last year still are fresh in my head, in my mind. It was nice to be back on the centre court."

Djokovic will take on either Federico Coria or Alex Molcan in the next round.