Joao Fonseca and Novak Djokovic spent four hours and 53 minutes on court in their thrilling third round match at Roland Garros.
Fonseca came from two sets down to beat Djokovic to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.
Despite suffering an early loss at Roland Garros this year, Isner was full of praise for Djokovic after his defeat to Fonseca.
Isner has continued this praise for Djokovic, claiming that both he and Fonseca proved something about tennis after their match.
John Isner claims tennis players are the best athletes in the world
Former Wimbledon semifinalists Sam Querrey and Isner reacted to Djokovic’s defeat to Fonseca on the Nothing Major Podcast.
Querrey was full of praise for Djokovic for how he competed over five sets, as well as for the way he spoke about Fonseca after the match.
How many Grand Slam titles will Joao Fonseca win in his career?
What a match!
Isner and former top 30 player Steve Johnson responded by claiming that this proves tennis players are the best athletes in the world of sport.
“Flowers to Novak, four hours and 53 minutes, the fact that he was out there battling,” said Querrey.
“And in the post-match press conference, he was like ‘Joao stepped up on the big points’, he was very complimentary to Fonseca, because Novak played well, Joao just took those big points. But 39 and like John said has played twice as many matches as everyone and just battled for five hours.”
Isner responded, “If there’s any doubt that tennis players aren’t the best athletes in the world, this Roland Garros has disproven that.”
Johnson then added, “No other singular athlete is doing that for five hours!”
How many five set matches have taken place at Roland Garros this year?
Fonseca and Djokovic have played one of many five set matches that have already been played at Roland Garros this year.
After the conclusion of the third round of Roland Garros, there have been a total of 28 five set matches in the men’s singles draw this year.
As well as Djokovic’s defeat, world number one Jannik Sinner was also beaten by Juan Manuel Cerundolo in five sets during the first week of the clay court major.
Have we seen the last of Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros? 😢
This is the fourth highest ever at this stage of Roland Garros, just four behind the highest total of 32 in 1992.
It is also a huge increase on the number of five set matches at the Australian Open this year, where the entire tournament had just 22 five set matches.
