"This has happened to Novak Djokovic for almost 15 years" - Fans unhappy with French Open offering evening slot to Serb for 4R after late-night finish

Novak Djokovic played an exhausting 4.5 hour-long battle in the third round of the 2024 French Open on Saturday, defeating Lorenzo Musetti in a thrilling five-setter that ended past 3 am on Sunday morning. Yet, the Serb has been allotted the evening slot on Moday for his fourth-round clash against Francisco Cerundolo, which has not gone down well with fans.

In the latest-ever finish at Roland Garros, Djokovic defeated Musetti 7-5, 6-7(6), 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 with an incredible comeback win that set Paris on fire. With many expecting the World No. 1 to play in the night session once more, which would have given him about four more hours of rest time, the French Open organizers have put him on Court Philippe-Chartier as the final match of the day session.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion's fixture is preceded by two women's fourth round matches - Elina Svitolina vs Elena Rybakina and Emma Navarro vs Aryna Sabalenka - and is followed by the Round of 16 encounter between Alexander Zverev and Holger Rune.

Taking to social media after the schedule came out, fans decried how nonsensical the decision to not put Novak Djokovic in the night session was, stating that many of the choices this year have been "ridiculous."

"How does all this even make even the slightest of the sense? I don’t get it," one fan said.

"New excuse for Novak in the press conference after losing to Cerundolo in 4 sets," another said.

"RG scheduling this year has to be one of the most ridiculous," another wrote.

One fan went as far as to say that the World No. 1 has had to endure such burdens all his career, opining that tournaments often schedule him poorly whenever their usual program gets derailed.

This year at the French Open, for instance, heavy showers have forced many of the matches to be rescheduled constantly. The most divisive of those reschedules happened on Saturday, when Djokovic and Musetti were made to wait two more hours when the organizers moved Grigor Dimitrov and Zizou Bergs to Court Philippe-Chartrier before the Serb's match after theirs got interrupted by rain.

"Horrendous scheduling by Roland Garros again. After a grueling 5 set match that finished 3am Paris time today, the top seed will have to be back again tomorrow noon. Doesn't make any sense?? 😖Don't think Djokovic requested a day session, but this is absolutely stupid from RG," one fan said.

"I know the rain has thrown everything out of wack. But the scheduling of this tournament has been sub par at best if not horrendous," another wrote.

"This has happened to Djokovic for almost 15 years now. Whenever there is derailment in the schedule, somehow Djokovic is there to burden it. People are not complaining about just this 1 time, this is happening for a very long time now," one fan tweeted.

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Novak Djokovic taking on Francisco Cerundolo for the first time in French Open 4R

Novak Djokovic

When Novak Djokovic and Francisco Cerundolo take on each other in the fourth round of the 2024 French Open, it will be the first meeting between the duo on the ATP Tour. The winner of the clash will take on Casper Ruud or Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals.

After his late finish against Lorenzo Musetti, the World No. 1 joked that he will have to switch on his 'young genes' to recover in time for for the battle against Cerundolo.

"I’m going to have to switch on all of my young genes and try to recover as soon as possible," he said.

Djokovic is the defending champion at Roland Garros and is on the hunt for his fourth French Open crown. Winning it will make him the first man to achieve the quadruple career slam -- lifting each Major trophy at least four times.