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ROLAND GARROS – After what seems like a mere blip in time but in fact was nearly half his life ago, 38-year-old Novak Djokovic is on a mission to do what he once did in Montreal.

To win the Rogers Cup in 2007, the No. 4 seed would have to get past the No. 3 (Andy Roddick), No. 2 (Rafael Nadal) and No. 1 (Roger Federer) in the last three rounds to win the Rogers Cup.

He had just turned 20 then, and was already the No. 4 player in the world. But he had yet to win his first Grand Slam title, or even make a final.

And he did it; the only set he lost was in his third-set tiebreak win over Federer on a very windy day in Canada.

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Fast forward nearly 18 years, the now-38-year-old Djokovic is attempting something that you could easily argue is even harder. Even if there are no “Big Three” combatants involved.

A monumental task

To win this year’s Roland Garros, the elder statesman of the game and the only still-active member of that august group will have to beat the top three players in the world: No. 3 Alexander Zverev, No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 1 Jannik Sinner. Although not precisely in ascending order.

(Djokovic vs Sinner will take place not before 7 p.m. in Paris – 1 p.m. EDT – on Friday).

The first obstacle was Zverev. And on Wednesday night, Djokovic took down the former Roland Garros finalist with a game plan that he couldn’t have conceived of that week in Montreal so long ago.

The 38-year-old version of Djokovic is not nearly what he was. That’s the reality of Father Time although when you follow him day to day, year to year, it’s not nearly as apparent. Because those changes are so gradual, you tend to compare him to the Djokovic from six months or a year before – not the peak Djokovic during those years when he and his two greatest rivals were running off with just about every significant trophy in the sport.

It’s like when you see a child grow up every day, you don’t realize how quickly time flies. But if you don’t see that child for a decade, you realize how much has changed.

But this 2025 version is not vintage Djokovic. How could it be? We no longer regularly refer to his Gumby-like flexibility. Or his speed going into the corners. Or even his remarkable, indefatigable stamina.

It’s been a few years now that you see Djokovic struggling to catch his breath even after an average-length rally. Those nicks and niggles happen with regularity now to an ironman who, once found the right path, had been practically bulletproof in that regard for 15 years. It’s like time left him untouched for far longer than anyone had a right to expect.

But in his evolution, he has become a smarter, more savvy tennis player.

Dropshots by the bucketload

Against Zverev, who can rally on the backhand side with him all day and is more than a decade younger, Djokovic stepped out of his comfort zone so willingly – so brazenly – that he took the No. 3 player in the world and made three bites out of him.

Close to 40 drop shots – each one making Zverev’s legs burn, because of the sprint it took from his default position way behind the baseline. Cumulatively, they finished him off.

“He’s won 24 of these things. I think, yes, I expected him to be able to play like this. I have not seen him play like this this year yet. I think it was very, very high level from him,” Zverev said after the match. “I, at some point, felt like I didn’t know how to win a point from the baseline against him. I thought he was having
solutions to a lot of things that I was doing.”

Early in his career, Djokovic used the drop shot. But too often, he used it unwisely and in the key moments, it failed him. This Djokovic used it aggressively, tactically and highly successfully.

He serve-volleyed some, when he had to. And, in part, it was an element of a big-picture, conscious decision to try to shorten some of the points.

“I was just trying to mix it up. At one point, you know, I felt like I couldn’t go through him, so I try to bring him to the net. I try to risk it with the dropshot, serve and volley. It had to be done,” Djokovic said.

Djokovic knows what he has in the tank. And having it for five long sets – a no-brainer in his youth – is something he can no longer count on. And so, the man known for his surgical precision from the baseline is now a savvy, self-protecting tactician.

That he now possesses the technical ability to execute his “veteran” game plan is because of all the little, incremental improvements he’s made over his long career. Back in the day, he wouldn’t have been able to do it. Even if some of the technique is hardly textbook, it still works.

Still hungry after all these years

During this Roland Garros, Djokovic has spoken of continuing to play until the Los Angeles Olympics. Which are in three years. When he’ll be 41 years old.

No one is going to hold him to this; the reality for most elite athletes is that when the physical self starts to go, it can drop off as if it were hurtled off a cliff. As gradual as Djokovic’s physical decline has been, he has no way to know when that cliff will appear.

But we do know that everything these days is focused around those major titles – that quest for the all-time but oh, so elusive No. 25. Which he’s been chasing since winning No. 24 at the US Open in 2023.

Notably, he didn’t have to defeat either Sinner or Alcaraz to win that one; two months before, he’d beaten Sinner in the semifinals of Wimbledon, and lost in five sets to Alcaraz.

In 2024, he lost to Sinner in Australia, withdrew before his quarterfinal in Paris, lost to Alcaraz at Wimbledon and was shocked by Alexei Popyrin in the third round at the US Opeen.

This year, he got past Alcaraz in the Australian Open quarterfinals, but had to retire after the first set of his semifinal against Zverev.

Getting No. 100 out of the way

Djokovic’s clay-court season, after a superlative effort getting to the Miami Open final, was a disaster.

An opening loss to Alejandro Tabilo in Monte Carlo (frankly, he didn’t seem fully engaged there), a shocker to Matteo Arnaldi in Madrid (ditto) and a hard pass on Rome did little more than offer a couple of younger players a bucket-list moment.

But he went to Geneva, with that career title haul at 99, and knocked off another round number accomplishment by breaking the hard of Hubert Hurkacz in the final.

That gave him some reps.

Djokovic and Gomez reunite at Roland Garros (pics)

And his Roland Garros draw as the No. 6 couldn’t have been friendlier: Mackenzie McDonald, Corentin Moutet, qualifier Filip Misolic and Cameron Norrie – all in straight sets.

As the No. 6, he could have drawn either Alcaraz or Sinner in the quarterfinals. But he didn’t; he got Zverev. The draw gods were kind to him once again.

And so, he arrives for his semifinal clash with Sinner having played just one set over the minimum, as fresh as he’d have any right to expect to be.

Sinner a different challenge

And now, in a night match under similarly-cool conditions that made Zverev feel like he just couldn’t hit winners from the baseline, comes the semifinal against Sinner.

Sinner’s three-month absence as he finally served a suspension for his positive test Clostebol at Indian Wells in March, 2024 not only doesn’t seem to have held him back, it might have helped him.

The two have a head-to-head of 4-4. But that doesn’t tell the story.

Sinner has won the last three, and four of the last five.

But the two have never met at Roland Garros; in fact, their only career meeting on clay came four years ago in Monte Carlo, when Sinner was just 19. It was an easy win for Djokovic.

Times have changed.

“He’s going to come out. He’s going to play on a very high level, as he did basically every tournament that he played in the last year and a half. I don’t expect anything less from him. But these kind of matchups and challenges in a way extract the best out of me. You know, playing best-of-five, late stages of a Grand Slam against No. 1 in the world … you can’t get more motivated than that for me at this age,” Djokovic said.

“That’s how I see it now. How am I going to stop him? I don’t think about that. I think about how am I going to execute what I want on the court and feel how I want to feel. That’s where my thoughts are going.”

Sweet road for Sinner

Sinner also had a fairly sweet road to the final four – only one seed, No. 17 Andrey Rublev. And that was short and sweet.

He’s beaten Arthur Rinderknech (12 games lost), Richard Gasquet (seven), Jiri Lehecka (three!), Rublev (eight) and Alexander Bublik (six).

His longest match was that first one – 2h15 against Rinderknech. All of his other victories came in two hours or less.

“(Djokovic) has shown now in the last period that he is back to the level. He plays very, very well, so it’s going to be even there quite tactical, but very, very difficult. He’s such an experienced player – 24 Grand Slams. I think that says everything.”

If Djokovic can pull this off, he might well end up having to face Carlos Alcaraz in the final. Although Alcaraz will have a challenge against the rising Italian Lorenzo Musetti.

Can he do the unthinkable – knock off the top three players on the planet to win major No. 25?

It might not involve Federer or Nadal at their peaks. But if it includes Sinner and Alcaraz, at age 38, it would be a monumental feat.

If he does, and if I were him, I’d just drop the mic and walk off into the sunset. Because nothing he could ever do after that would top it.

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