John McEnroe: pressure to get first French Open title could hurt Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic begins his quest to make history later today when he kicks off his French Open campaign.

The World No.1 and tournament favourite faces Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the first round as he seeks to become only the eighth player to complete a career Grand Slam.

Djokovic already has eight to his name, but victory at Roland Garros has so far proved elusive.

He has twice been a runner-up in Paris to Rafael Nadal, but this year, the Serbian has been in ominous form.

Djokovic has lost just one of his last 35 matches and in that time, he has collected the Australian Open title, and four ATP Masters 1000 events.

But his biggest challenge is conquering the weight of history. And one man who knows all about that at the French Open is John McEnroe.

The American, who is in Paris working as a summariser for Eurosport’s coverage of the tournament, won every Grand Slam except the French Open.

And in 1984, he had the sort of season that Djokovic is enjoying. That took McEnroe to the final and a two-set lead against Ivan Lendl, but he famously lost the match and the chance to win all four slipped away.

So he understands perfectly how Djokovic will be feeling.

“It seems like Novak is inhuman, a machine that is unbeatable,” says McEnroe.

“The only guy that I could see beat him is Rafa or possibly some big server who does something crazy, like John Isner.

“But even then, I don’t see that happening over the best of five sets.

“If anything, the pressure to get his first French Open will hurt him a little bit. But Novak is so well prepared, it probably won’t matter.

“Of course, though he is going to feel like, ‘Now I should win this’. There’s no question about it.

“He’s worked all these years and he has had a couple of very good chances, but it almost feels like it’s preordained.”

The man still most likely to stop Djokovic this year remains Nadal as the Spaniard has beaten him six times out of six at Roland Garros.

Nadal is looking to make his own history as the first man to win the same Grand Slam on ten occasions, but 2015 has not been a good year.

Injuries and the constant toll on his body appear to be catching up with him and he has slipped to number seven in the rankings.

As a form guide, he did not win any of the main tournaments in the European clay-court season in the run-up to Paris.

His drop in the rankings also means that he is scheduled to play Djokovic as early as the quarter-final, which would have been unthinkable in previous years.

Nadal begins against Frenchman Quentin Halys, and McEnroe senses that he has fallen back to earth in tennis terms.

“Apparently Rafa Nadal is a human being,” he jokes. “If you touch him, he can feel pain!

“It makes you realise how high his level was for so long when you see him at a mortal level and think, ‘What is wrong with this guy?’

“Maybe something is wrong and I’m not sure he’s the same player. But he is still going to be much tougher to beat in best of five.

“But it’s got to the point that fans are going to get behind him whereas before they always wanted to see someone else win because Rafa was winning everything.”