Blake Krass gives his pick, prediction and best bet for Friday’s French Open match between Novak Djokovic and Joao Fonseca.
It is only the third round at Roland-Garros, and there has already been a shocking upset with Jannik Sinner going down in the second round. That means the field is now wide open. The most decorated player in the history of the sport, Novak Djokovic, is now one of the favorites to win. Additionally, 19-year-old Joao Fonseca is one of the young stars who could use this as a chance to claim their first major title. This should be a great battle between the young phenom and the aged legend.
Here is my pick, prediction and best bet on DraftKings Sportsbook for Friday’s third-round match between Joao Fonseca and Novak Djokovic.
This is just about as good as it gets when it comes to early round matchups at a Grand Slam. Novak Djokovic is the greatest champion that the sport has ever seen. His 24 Grand Slam singles titles are the most in history. Meanwhile, Joao Fonseca was not yet born when Novak Djokovic played in his first French Open in 2005. Fonseca is just 19 years old but already has two ATP titles to his name. However, Fonseca has never made it past the third round at a major. This would be by far the biggest win of his young career if he could make it to the fourth round here at Roland-Garros and take down the greatest of all time.
Roland-Garros has been Novak Djokovic’s least successful major venue over the years, with just a measly three French Open titles. That can be partially attributed to having played so much of his career against Rafael Nadal, the greatest clay-court player the world has ever seen. However, this could now be Djokovic’s best chance to win one more Grand Slam title before he retires. Djokovic has not won a major since 2023, and it seemed as if his Grand Slam days were done as he could not beat Sinner and Alcaraz. However, Alcaraz and Sinner are both out of the way after only two rounds of action. Now, Alexander Zverev, who has never won a major title, is the only player ranked higher than Djokovic left in the field.
Joao Fonseca is one of the rising stars in the sport. He burst onto the scene by winning an ATP title at just 18 years old on clay in Argentina last year. He added an ATP 500 title to his name as well in Switzerland in October. Fonseca has not won a title in 2026, but he has put himself up against much tougher competition. He is playing in all of the biggest tournaments and competing against the best player in the world.
Fonseca made the Round of 16 at Indian Wells, where he pushed Sinner to the brink before losing to the eventual champion. He then lost to Alcaraz in Miami, nothing to be ashamed of. Fonseca has had a solid start to his clay season. He made the quarter-finals in Monte-Carlo before losing to Alexander Zverev. He also made the quarters at the BMW before losing to Ben Shelton. Fonseca seems ready to take on the best of the best; he is just awaiting that one big win to unlock everything.
My best bet is for Joao Fonseca to pull off the upset and claim the biggest win of his young career. Fonseca has defeated a top-10 player at a major before. He defeated Andrey Rublev in the opening round of the 2025 Australian Open, the win that really set off Fonseca’s career. Novak Djokovic is another beast compared to Rublev, but this is not Djokovic at the peak of his powers. Of course, he has not been at the peak of his powers in several years, but 2026 has been particularly tough for Djokovic. He started it in incredible fashion, upsetting Jannik Sinner to make the Australian Open final, where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz. However, he suffered a serious injury that kept him out of the game from the Miami Open all the way through the Italian Open, a break of nearly two months.
Djokovic made his return in Rome to get ready for Roland-Garros after nearly two months and was upset in the first round by Dino Prizmic. Djokovic has already had to go four sets in each of his first two matches here at Roland-Garros against far inferior opponents. He is clearly not fully sharp yet and is not up to full match fitness. Against a player two decades younger than him, that fitness could be a serious factor across a best-of-five-sets match. This is the moment for Joao Fonseca to announce himself as one of the future great players in the game.
此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理，仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。