The 38-year-old Djokovic, the No. 6 seed, proved too much for No. 3 seed Zverev, who is a decade younger and was last year’s runner-up at Roland Garros, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to set up a semifinal showdown against No. 1 Jannik Sinner on Friday.
It was Djokovic’s 101st victory at Roland Garros, site of his Olympic gold medal victory last year at the Paris Games, and it took 3 hours, 17 minutes.
He’s now two wins from becoming the first player — male or female — to win 25 Grand Slam singles trophies.
“Obviously there was a lot of tension [and] pressure, but it is normal when you play against Zverev,” Djokovic said in a postmatch interview. “… My game is based on a lot of running. I am 38 years old. It is not easy to keep running like that but, OK, it works.”
No one has spent more weeks at No. 1 in the rankings than Djokovic. No one has won more major championships or reached more major semifinals than his total, which now stands at 51 after becoming the second-oldest man to get that far in Paris.
“I still push myself on a daily basis at this age because of these kind of matches and these kind of experiences,” Djokovic said. “It’s a proven kind of testament to myself that I can — and to others that I can — still play on the highest level.”
Zverev, who is still searching for his first Grand Slam title, started out strongly and broke Djokovic in the very first game and held on to that advantage to win the first set.
