{"id":47644,"date":"2026-05-24T23:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T03:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/french-open-novak-djokovic-makes-grand-slam-history-by-defeating-giovanni-mpesi-pellicar-after-dropping-first-set\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T23:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T03:42:10","slug":"french-open-novak-djokovic-makes-grand-slam-history-by-defeating-giovanni-mpesi-pellicar-after-dropping-first-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/french-open-novak-djokovic-makes-grand-slam-history-by-defeating-giovanni-mpesi-pellicar-after-dropping-first-set\/","title":{"rendered":"French Open: Novak Djokovic makes Grand Slam history by defeating Giovanni Mpesi Pellicar after dropping first set"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Novak Djokovic had an early test on Sunday, dropping the first set of the French Open to unseeded Frenchman Giovanni Mpesi Pericard.<\/p>\n<p>But he rallied to win a tough second set and was on track from there until winning 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 in the first round at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n<p>advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Mpesi Pericad seemed to run out of steam after a long first two sets. Tested at the Grand Slam, Djokovic blitzed through the third match and took the lead in the fourth by defeating Mpesi Pericado.<\/p>\n<p>Mpesi Pericad fought back to break Djokovic&#8217;s first serve in the fourth set and keep the final set competitive. However, Djokovic ultimately won and had enough energy to do a little dance after securing victory with a forehand winner.<\/p>\n<section class=\"consent\"\/>\n<p>The two shared an online hug, and Mpesi Pellikar received appreciative cheers from the Roland Garros crowd as he left the court in defeat.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic secured victory in his 82nd career Grand Slam start, breaking the tie for most by a male player with Roger Federer and Feliciano Lopez. Djokovic has started 22 matches at Roland Garros, reaching the first round in each of them.<\/p>\n<p>advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The third-seeded Serbian is aiming for the fourth French Open title of his career and first since 2023. Djokovic will face fellow Frenchman Valentin Royer in the second round.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Novak Djokovic had an early test on Sunday, dropping the first set of the French Open to unseeded Frenchman Giovanni Mpesi Pericard. But he rallied to win a tough second set and was on track from there until winning 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 in the first round at Roland Garros. advertisement Mpesi Pericad seemed to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3202,262,6072,151,3126,36,516,9250,261,32,9251,150,37,24],"class_list":["post-47644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-defeating","tag-djokovic","tag-dropping","tag-french","tag-giovanni","tag-grand","tag-history","tag-mpesi","tag-novak","tag-open","tag-pellicar","tag-set","tag-slam","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}