On the night of his 38th birthday, Novak Djokovic returned to his feisty best at the Geneva Open to record a win over Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi in the quarter-final on Thursday.
While the eventual 6-4, 6-4 scoreline may not reflect the Serb’s struggles, Djokovic brushed past his opponent after an eventful tide of frustrations and injury scare to even possibly reunite with the confidence he has lacked throughout the 2025 season.
Making up for his Madrid Open defeat to Arnaldi wasn’t easy. As the 38-year-old Djokovic handed a break and a 3-1 lead early on in the second set, the emotions led him to smash his racket. Soon after the wavering service game, the 24-time Grand Slam champion suffered a knee injury scare after Arnaldi expertly wrong-footed him to extend the lead to 1-4.
Racket smash on his 38th birthday we are not worthy 😭❤️😭❤️😭❤️😭❤️ pic.twitter.com/IBxxkxtt1U
— Zain (@ItzzZain10) May 22, 2025
But the inimitable Djokovic immediately flipped the scales and denied Arnaldi any further inroads to win the next five games in succession and a berth in the semi-final before announcing that he’s slowly getting back in the groove.
Djokovic had recently announced his split from long-time rival Andy Murray’s coaching, and had undergone a tepid run of results since an injury-forced exit at the Australian Open.
looks like Novak might’ve hurt his right knee a bit when wrong-footed by Arnaldi to go down 1-4 in the second set. hope it’s nothing serious especially with RG right around the corner pic.twitter.com/fewA6xf9C0
— Christian’s Court (@christianscourt) May 22, 2025
“It’s great to be in the semifinals again. Last year, I played semifinals. Hopefully, this year I can go a step further. That’s the goal. You know I think I’m playing really, really good tennis. Today was, as I said, a lot of tension on the court, straight-set win but it was much closer than the score indicates,” Djokovic said as he builds up to the French Open.
Perhaps, the racket smash may just have done the trick.
“I think I’m playing really, really good tennis” 😌
Novak Djokovic is happy to reach back-to-back semifinals in Switzerland.#GonetGenevaOpen pic.twitter.com/vmlbDbsfce
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) May 22, 2025
“Yeah, I was 4-1 down in the second and somehow, I don’t know, after that racket breaking, I didn’t lose a game and kind of found my optimal state and balance, mentally and emotionally, to really be able to play the best tennis when it was most needed,” Djokovic added.
Djokovic will test the positive streak on Friday facing Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the semi-final and a title may just be the shot in the arm before opening his Roland Garros bid on Sunday.
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